Reunion
by Fury Cutter
Summary: Set two years after SO3, Sophia gets the gang together again for a reunion on Elicoor II which heralds the arrival of a new enemy and the return of an old friend.
1. Fayt's letter

A.N. "Blah"- Normal Speech  
_'Blah'-_ thoughts  
Blah>- Phone, radio, vid screen, ect  
_Blah-_ Written text_

* * *

_

_Star Ocean Till the end of time_

Reunion

Chapter 1: Fayt's Letter.

Sophia stared out of the window of her dorm room and unsurprisingly it was raining, it had been for the last couple of days but she didn't mind as it matched her mood.

It had been two years since the adventure in 4D space, two years since she'd seen Maria, Cliff, Mirage and the others and two years since she'd heard from Fayt. When the group parted company Nel, Adray and Roger had headed home to Elicoor II whilst Albel had signed up with Cliff and Maria as part of Quark

_"The war's back home is over, there's nothing for me back there"_ Albel had said before asking Maria to take him on.

Sophia had returned to Earth with Fayt (making a small detour at Moonbase to drop off Peppita) but it wasn't like it had been before, Fayt couldn't seem to slip back into his old life like she did, he was restless and withdrawn and affected both his school work and his relationships with his friends. Sophia sighed as she walked over to her desk, amongst all the text books, term papers and odd bits of scrap paper was an envelope which contained the last thing she had of him, the letter he'd written before he'd disappeared.

_Dear Sophia  
__If you've not already sussed out from this seeing this letter attached to your door, I'm not going to be around anymore. I've doing a lot of thinking and have come to this conclusion I can no longer stay, I apologize if this causes you any distress but the destruction gene still lies within me thanks to my fathers experiment, though he meant well he probably didn't foresee what kind of life we would have after the war with the creator, but because of his tampering I can never have normal life. You have been my friend since I can remember and I can never express how much it means to me.  
If you should ever see the others again please pass these messages on.  
Tell that great knucklehead Cliff he is arrogant and egocentric and I wouldn't have him any other way.  
Tell iron willed Maria that she is a great leader and an incredible woman who I'm sure no man could resist.  
Tell ever obedient Mirage that I admire her coolness and level headedness andher uncanny ability to kick serious ass when she needs to.  
Tell energetic Peppita that without her humour and good nature we might never have got through some pretty dark times.  
Tell Roger that I enjoyed his company and I'm sure one day he'll be a great leader.  
Tell Adray that his experience and wisdom were a great help on our quest.  
__Tell kind hearted Nel that she has a special place in my heart and I'm sure she'll meetsomeone who can give her the love and affection she deserves.  
And finally tell honourable Albel that he is one of the greatest friends I gained during our adventure and can think no I'd rather have to help me get out of trouble.  
Tell them that their friendship is always carried in my heart where ever I go and is treasured higher then any amount of money or precious gem.  
__There are questions that I need answers to and I won't find them by hanging around here and so I must go out into the universe and find them myself and even though it pains me to do so this journey is to dangerous for you to take with me. I don't know if you'll ever see me again but please don't waste your tears worrying about me.  
__All my love  
__Fayt Leingod_

Sophia sighed as she put the letter back in the envelope, opened the desk draw and placed the letter inside.

Three months after returning to Earth she found the letter tapped to her door and the second she'd finished reading it hurried over to Fayt's room only to find people crowding around his room and signs pasted along the walls saying 'FREE STUFF', by the time she managed to get inside the room had been mostly ransacked, all Fayt's posters had been taken off the wall, all his CD's were gone along with his stereo and CD player, a lot of his clothes were missing, books and magazines had been taken, his laptop was gone and even his bed linen had been claimed. She salvaged what she could and reported Fayt's disappearance to the local authorities and when they turned up with nothing she got in contact with Maria in hopes of finding answers.

Sophia sat down at the desk as she remembered informing Maria about Fayt, the conversation they'd had to this day still echoed in her mind.

Flashback: Two years ago.  
Sophia it's been a while> Maria said in a cheerful voice What can I do for you>

"Maria its Fayt, he's gone" Sophia said trying not to let her voice crack

What do you mean he's gone> Mariaasked slightly confused

"He just upped and left without saying anything. I've tried the local authorities but they can't find anything" Sophia couldn't hold out any longer and the tears started to roll down her face

Please don't cry Sophia, I'll have my people keep an eye out for him. With all my people on the job I'm sure we'll find him>

"Promise" Sophia said tears with rolling down her cheeks I promise, I'll contact you if we find anything> Maria said before signing off  
End Flashback

That had been two years ago and any information that had turned up was few and far between and always lead to a dead end and then it just stopped, Sophia hadn't heard anything from Maria in just under a year and it was now really unnerving, not that she hadn't been doing her part.

Sophia had been sending G-mails to Fayt's address plus she knew his logon name and password and frequently checked his account but to her dismay she would find her letters were unread.

Sighing again Sophia switched on her computer and connected to the Uninet, after a few moments she logged into Fayt's account even though she expected it to be hopeless and she was right, aside from her messages there was half a ton of junk mail which she erased before logging into her own account, which was full of the usual junk mail and various other documents for research.

Then she noticed a letter, clicking on it she noticed it had no indication to who it was from.

'_Don't worry'_, the message was only two words but tough's two words filled her with more hope then she'd felt in a long time

"Oh Fayt" she said as tears of joy rolled down her cheeks.

Meanwhile on a planet known as Styx a figure dressed in a hooded robe and a drawn sword stood over the fallen form of an Enforcer as the dust storm whirled around them, it let out one final growl before the figure rammed his sword through its skull putting the creature out of its misery.

With the creature finally dealt with the figure looked up at the stars

"Don't worry" he said before heading off into the storm.

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Squear Enix ownsthe Star Ocean series and all it's character I on the other hand don't own anything.This is my first attempt at a Star Ocean fic so don't be too harsh. I also haven't finished Till the end of time yet so this is just what I think should happen. Please review me because I'd like to hear your comments. I'll try and get chapter 2 ASAP. Peace.


	2. Day in the life

A.N. "Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'- _Thoughts  
Blah>-Radio, Phone, ect_

* * *

_

_Star Ocean Till the end of time  
_Reunion  
Proofread by Tristan Amaryllia

Chapter 2: Day in the life.  
Sophia emerged from the lecture hall, exhausted and very stiff. The lecture had lasted all afternoon, and if it had gone on any longer she was sure that herbrains would have started oozing out of her ears

_'Why did I take ancient cultures and mythology as a subject again?'_

"Hey Sophia." somebody called. Sophia looked over her shoulder and saw her friends Luna, Nikki and Serena. Luna had tanned skin, raven black hair that reached the small of her back, and piercing blue eyes. Nikki had pale skin, brown hair which she had plaited and brown eyes. Serena had short silvery white hair, dark skin and green eyes

"Hey guys." Sophia said walking over to them "am I glad that's over. I'm exhausted"

"I bet." Nikki said. "Explain to us why you took ancient cultures and mythology as a subject again" Luna laughed as she looked at her watch

"Come on, we got ten minutes before practice."

"Ahh, do we have to go? I'm barely staying awake as it is." Sophia whined

"Go to your locker, grab your gear and meet us at the court in five minutes."

Luna said as she and her two companions made their way down the hall, Sophia muttered some Klasuian cures words she'd once heard Cliff say as she made her way down the corridor toward her locker, grabbed her uniform and headed for the changing room via the vending machine to grab something with plenty of sugar.

Ten minutes later, Sophia and her friends were shooting hoops in the gym waiting for the rest of the team to warm up. Sophia played for the Women's Basketball Team at the college and was one of their top scorers (Fayt's natural talent for the game seemed to rub off on her) and they were in third place in the league. But lately her heart just hadn't been in it.

"So have you heard anything from Fayt yet?" Luna asked as her shot skimmed off the rim of the hoop. Sophia looked at the floor for a moment before tossing the ball, which rebounded off the backboard and through the hoop. She hadn't heard or received anything since the G-mail two month's ago

"Fayt's a big boy, he can take care of himself besides I'm sure he'll contact me when he's ready."

"Ok girls let's do some drills." The coach yelled before blowing her whistle.

Two hours later Sophia, Luna, Serena and Nikki emerged from the changing rooms, each of them worn out and full of muscle aches.

"I swear the coach is doing this on purpose." Luna said as she rubbed one of her arms.

"Well we do have a game coming up." Nikki reminded her "she just wants us in top condition."

"Yeah, if we're not too exhausted to move." Luna retorted. The four friends walked down the hall, three of them chatting about various subjects, but Sophia wasn't listening. School was beginning to become really repetitive, and though she put up a casual front, she was beginning to wish to do what Fayt had done: drop out and explore the universe.

More than once she would feel the urge to go find him herself, and had once almost walked out in the middle of the night and headed for the shuttle port to catch the first flight to Moonbase; to the late Dr Leingod's lab actually. It seemed to be as good a place to start. She'd then spent the night at an arcade, in the Battle Simulators (another habit of Fayt's that had rubbed off on her, as she was now a keen user), before sneaking back to her room at five o'clock in the morning. On a few occasions she had almost tried it again but always managed to stop herself before she'd run away again.

Returning to her room, she threw her bag on the desk and flopped down on the bed

'I_ wonder what Maria, Cliff, Mirage and the others are doing right now, probably something brave and heroic'_ She thought as she pictured the two blond Klausians, and the blue haired Earthling alongside the Elicoorian swordsman somewhere in the middle of a battle against incredible odds, where they still manage to come through and win the day _'and I wonder what Fayt is doing at the moment too.'_ She shook this thought from her head and made her way over to her desk, cleared some of the clutter

(_'Note to self when I have a free moment: clear desk'_ occurring to her as she did), and tried to make a fair size dent on her assignment.

"In Greek mythology, the Amazons were mythological warrior women, renowned as hunters and fighters. They only met with men on occasion to produce offspring for their tribe" she read aloud from her reference book, though reading soon turned to complaining.

"Ah, why did I take this as a subject again? I should have done art like I wanted to."

After two hours of trying to study, Sophia gave up, dropping the book on the table, as it was now pretty obvious she wasn't going to be making any headway tonight. She was restless, and she needed something to take the edge off. A sly grin spread across her face as she got down on her knees, reached under her bed and pulled out a largish wooden case which, when opened, revealed a memento of her adventures with Fayt and the others two years ago: she removed her rod from it's case, grabbed her jacket and her student ID and made her way from her room. She passed through the corridors of the facility and towards the front entrance.

"Now this is an unexpected sight." Turning around, Sophia saw Luna standing a few inches away from her. "I wonder…what could you be up to?"

"Oh. Hi Luna." Sophia said "I was just heading out for some air."

"Aha. And I'm just going to take my pet Gerbil for a walk on Venus."

"There's no need to be sarcastic." Sophia replied, when suddenly a rather devious thought struck her. "You're not just going to let me walk out of here by myself are you?"

"As your friend, I can't allow you to go just anywhere on your own." Luna replied, noticing the tone in her friend's voice.

"But if I were to slip out, would you follow and try and bring me back?"

"I'm afraid I'd have too."

"Cool. So shall we go?" Sophia said as the two friends made their way out of the building towards the nearest hoverbus terminal, to catch a hoverbus to take them from Golden Gate University to Fisherman's Wharf. The two of found themselves outside a place called Cid's Dungeon.

"Were going here?" Luna asked.

"Yep, I haven't been here in a while,"

The two them walked in to the building, and whilst Luna was getting some drinks, Sophia was at the front desk registering with one of the simulators. Once Sophia had set the program the two of them went inside.

"I can't believe you like fighting games." Luna said, as they waited for the game to begin.

"Why? That gonna be a problem?" Sophia replied. "Oh, and don't worry. The settings are on easy since this is your first time."

"I'm gonna mop the floor with you, Esteed." Her friend replied.

Then the empty room melted away, leaving them standing in what looked like the ruins of an ancient temple, face to face with four fierce looking War Chameleons. Sophia was carrying her traditional rod as she planned to fight using Symbology, whilst Luna was armed with two long daggers, similar to the ones that had been carried by Nel.

Luna whistled before charging headlong toward the nearest lizard, which tried to pounce on her? But Luna got there first, embedding one of her knives in its torso while using the other to slash at its head. Luna was losing herself in the carnage as she continued her barrage of slashes on the creature. It tried to slash back at her with its claws, but she easily dodged and sent it flying with a one-two kick, and finished it off by burying her blades in its throat the moment it hit the ground. However, she didn't notice the second Chameleon creeping up behind her until it pounced at her.

"Lighting blast."

The lizard fell short of its target as it was struck in the back by a bolt of lightning. Both Luna and the Chameleon saw Sophia standing not five feet away from them, her left hand crackling with energy. TheChameleon let out a growl and charged the brunette.

"Efreet!" She yelled and a large column of lava rose from the ground, in the shape of a massive fire demon, which smothered the lizard, and fried it to a crisp?

The two friends finished off the third lizard quickly with a combination of Sophia's Earth Glaive spell and Luna's Triple Kick attack.

Then, suddenly, Luna threw one of her daggers at Sophia. Sophia just barely manages to get out of the way when she heard a cry and saw the fourth Chameleon in the space she had just been standing in, with the dagger piercing its brain. Luna then rushed over, and finished the creature off by slashing its throat.

"Was that supposes to be a challenge? I barely broke a sweat." She said with unshaken pride.

"Lu, those were some pretty impressive moves." Sophia said, as she picked herself off the floor.

"My father has been making me learn various fighting styles since I was small."

"Sounds like he wanted to you to become some kind of warrior."

"No, not really. He always said 'just not a victim." There was a long silence between the two of them. "So shall we take this game to the next level?" Luna said to her friend with a grin on her face. "I want a real fight."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sophia asked. "This is your first time, after all."

"What makes you think this is my first time?" Luna replied. Sophia smiled.

"Let's do this".

The battles went on for hours but neither of the two seemed to mind as they battled Lizard Warriors, Horned Turtles, Brass Dragons, Feral Dragons, Legion Dragons, Dark Riders. They were eventually defeated by a Demon Imp, but they didn't seem to mind. Panting and dripping with sweat, they exited the room and saw that the owner was getting ready to close up shop.

After grabbing one last drink the two of them just barely managed to catch the last hoverbus back to the university, both of them reliving the battles back at Cid's.

It was nearly midnight by the time the two of them managed to slip back into the university. The two of them crept along the hall until they were outside Luna's dorm room.

"Well that was fun." Sophia whispered.

"Yeah, we should do this again soon." Luna replied.

"Let's bring Nikki and Serena along too next time."

"Deal." Luna said, as she slipped into her room. Sophia returned to her own room a few doors down. Once inside, she changed out of her clothes and into her sleeping gear, walked over to the window, and looked up at the stars.

"Goodnight Fayt." she said "Wherever you are." Then she closed the curtains and climbed into bed. Five minutes later, she was fast asleep.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre place called Gemity, a hooded figure sat next to a stall, watching people dressed up in costumes go by. To him, Gemity looked as if it had been designed by someone who'd smoked something questionable during the conceptualizing, as the buildings looked like those from ancient village, but they were covered in neon. The figure looked away from the swarms of people and looked at his feet.

"Good night." he said in a quiet voice before getting to his feet and disappearing into the crowds.

* * *

Phew, well that was chapter two, sorry if you feel slightly let down by it but it was the best I could come up with but please send me yourreviews as I like reading your comments, if you have any suggestions for this story please check my profile for my e-mail address, also check out my proof reader Tristan's work. I'm currently bashing away at Chapter 3 which should get the story moving forward slightly. Square Enix owns Star Ocean and all it's characters and settings while I own squat. I'll try and get chapter 3 up A.S.A.P., Peace.


	3. Subzero

A.N. "Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'_- Thoughts  
Blah>- Radio, Comm system, ect  
_"Blah"_- Speech in flashback_

* * *

_

_Star Ocean Till the end of time  
_Reunion  
Proof read by Tristain Amaryllis

Chapter 3: Subzero.

The sun rose over the frozen wasteland of the planet Yukon, a planet where one would imagine nothing could survive and where no sane person would go to or even want to set foot on - and yet here he was, along with his two companions, trekking across the frozen ground in search of their quarry.

_'I hate this place.'_

Even dressed in thick arctic gear he could still feel the cold chilling him to the bone, and the survival pack strapped to his back was uncomfortable, and made him sink into the snow. Which made walking even more difficult?

…Albel… Albel can you hear me…> The sound of their Leader's voice sounded in his ear. …I repeat Albel…can you hear me…?>

"Yes Maria, I can hear you." He replied.

…Statue report…>

"We've managed to find two of the specimens, and we're closing in on the third."

…Right, report in when you find it, Maria out…>

"Alright." he said, as the comm. line went dead.

"Was that who I think it was?" Even under the thick hood and dark glasses, the Elicoorian swordsman recognized the female Klausian, his crew mate and fellow member of Quark, Mirage Koas, with the other Klausian, Cliff Fitter bringing up the rear.

"Yeah, she's being a mother hen." Albel told her.

"Checking up on us, huh? How like her." Mirage said with a slight giggle. "Anyway, are we close to our target?"

"Hold on a second." Albel said as he tapped the frame of his glasses, causing his line of sight to change into heat sensitive mode. The landscape around him became immediately coloured in blues and soft greens, and after a moment he noticed a slight orange patch under the snow about three feet away from him. He removed the survival pack from his back and set it on the ground.

"Get the cage ready." He said in a slight whisper, then began to make his way forward. Slowly, he edged closer to his quarry, until he was all but on top of it. He looked back at Mirage and Cliff, who were slowly making their way towards him. After a few moments' pause, he drove his hand in to the snow and pulled out the small creature that had been hiding there. It was called a Sni, and though reptilian in appearance was covered in white fur.

"Got you." He growled as he made his way back to his companions, carefully keeping the thrashing creature at arm's length. He rammed it into the cage that Mirage held in her hand, and as soon as the door was closed, she pressed a button on top which made the bars begin to glow. Pressing another button, it disappeared in a flash light.

"And that makes three." Mirage said. "Now, if I remember our bet correctly, Cliff, you owe me one beer, and you owe Albel two." Cliff regarded her for a moment.

"Alright, alright I can accept defeat gracefully." He said with his usual good humour as he tossed Albel's survival pack back to him.

"The fool owes me more then two." Albel said as he strapped the pack on to his back. The words had been quiet, but Cliff apparently heard them all the same.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means, maggot."

"Come on, boys," Mirage said, stepping between the two, as if she expected them to suddenly start fighting. "Let's get off this ice cube. I want to thaw my limbs in a nice hot bath."

"Yeah, yeah." Cliff said, and pressed a button on his gauntlet. "Cliff to Pegasus, three to transport"

In a flash of light, the three of them disappeared, then reappeared a few seconds later in the transporter room of Cliff's new ship, the Pegasus. After dumping their packs, the three of them made their way to the bridge.

"Okay, Mirage, you can tell Maria that we got what we came for." Cliff told his right hand lady as he sat down in the co-pilot's chair. Shortly, he continued. "Then set a course for Medset #7 so we can get paid."

"Roger." She said as she sat down next to him in the pilot's chair. Albel took his place in the chair behind her. Two minutes later, the craft broke from the planet's orbit, and headed out for deep space.

"Course set, Cliff." Mirage told him.

"Alright, once we're past the second moon, engage Gravitic Warp and put this bird on auto pilot for awhile."

"Roger." She said again.

It took them ten minutes to clear of both Yukon's moons, but once they were clear, Mirage engaged the warp drive, which would allow them to cross the great distance from Yukon to Medset #7 in a mere five hours.

_'Good riddance.'_ Albel thought to himself as the warp drive was engaged. _'If I never return to that ball of ice again, it will be too soon.'_ Then he got up from his seat and made his way to the door.

"Where you off to?" Cliff asked.

"I'm off to shower and change. I figure I should before Mirage has her bath, if I want to be able to do it today."

There were actually functioning showers in every room, but the accusation was still obvious. Albel looked over his shoulder with a slight smirk on his face.

"You know Mirage, if you want someone to scrub your back later, just give me a shout." He then exited the bridge with Cliff close behind

"What! Why you sonova…get back here!" If either of them had hung around, they might have noticed the blush that had appeared on the Mirage's face. Luckily, they didn't.

Later, Albel was in his quarters with music by Bach's Prelude 21 blaring out of his terminal. He was dressed in tight leather trousers and black boots, currently shirtless and revealing his well toned body to the rest of the room. A bandage decorated his chest, and his left shoulder where he'd been bitten by large creature from Yukon whilst search for Sni.

It had apparently been planning on having the Sni for lunch, and it had not taken well to Albel stealing it. Had it not been for the thick arctic gear, the wound have been a lot more serious, but fortunately, all it was now was a minor – albeit rather unattractive – flesh wound. Even with the injury though, Albel had still been able to dispatch it without any help from Mirage and Cliff. When the three of them returned to the Pegasus, Mirage had given him an injection before cleaning his wound and applying a dressing.

Albel's gaze went suddenly to the small table by his bed. On it was a picture frame. He couldn't help but smile (still sparing a quick look about to make sure that no one else saw, even though he was pointedly alone) as he picked it up it. Inside was a picture of himself, Fayt, Peppita, Nel and the other members of the gang. The picture had been taken after they'd defeated Luther, before they had gone their separate ways.

Albel was suddenly brought back to reality when he heard his door open, and saw a much more refreshed-looking Mirage entering his room.

"How's your shoulder?" She asked.

"Better." He replied, putting the picture back. "I had to remove the bandages when I got in the shower, but I managed to put some fresh ones on after I was dry again." There was a long silence between the two of them.

"Albel do you ever get lonely?" Mirage asked. "Because if you do we…"

"Don't." Albel interrupted her, he looked her directly in the eyes. Deep cerulean eyes, he noticed "You and me it wouldn't work, and we both know it."

"I suppose so." Mirage said in a slightly hurt voice. Albel felt a strong feeling of guilt well up inside but wasn't about to admit it, he put on a stern front and spoke in a sneering tone

"It there a reason why your here" the female Klausian looked at him looking like she was holding tears back

"Yeah" she cleared her throat. "We will be arriving at Medset #7 soon. I just thought you should know." Then she left his room and made her way to the bridge. Albel stared at the door long after Mirage left

_'It wouldn't work because no matter how hard we'd try we would always long for someone else'_, and in a strange spate of self-consciousness grabbed his shirt off the bed and pulled it over his head.

From his closet he brought out his specially made arm guard which the weapons masters of Quark had made for him. It had a built-in force field projector, a special interface system which would allow him to hack into any computer network (assuming he could ever figure out how to work it), and the claws on the fingers, when energized, would allow him to cut through most known substance.

He slipped it onto his left arm, and then grabbed his trench coat off his chair, held up by a belt which his sword's sheath could be attached to. Albel exited his room and made his way to the bridge as an alarm sounded, informing the crew they'd be arriving at their destination soon.

"Hi there, Cliff Fittir." the blonde Klausian said as the three of them were greeted by the stations security team. "We're here to drop off the specimens your scientists need for their research."

"Follow us." One of the guards said gruffly. The guard led them to a screening room where they were screened for any bacteria and microbes, and then onto the labs. Inside, they were greeted by a man wearing a white lab coat and dark green slacks. He had brown eyes and his chocolate brown hair was beginning to grey. A younger woman with grey eyes and platinum hair stood next to him.

"Hello my name is Dr. Brizon." He said. "This is my colleague, Dr. Lyekka."

"Nice to meet you. Doctors, I'm Cliff Fitter, these are my crewmen, Mirage Koas and Albel Nox."

"It's nice to meet you." Dr. Lyekka said politely as she and Dr Brizon shook their hands. "I must say we are exigently grateful for your efforts."

"Ah it was nothing." Cliff said. "Y'know, Albel, while we're here maybe you should have that shoulder checked out."

"It's fine." the Elicoorian put in curtly.

"Shoulder?" The female doctor asked.

"Yeah, my crewmate here was bitten by a very large creature on Yukon when we were searching for your specimen three day's ago."

"Not a problem." Dr. Brizon said. "Dr Lyekka, would you please take Mr. Nox to an examination room?"

"Yes sir." She replied, then turned to Albel. "If you would please follow me Mr Nox." She led Albel out the door and along the corridor until they reached a room at the end of the hall.

They entered the room, and she motioned him to sit on the examining table.

"Now if you could remove your jacket and shirt, I'll take a look at your wounds." Albel was hesitant and uncomfortable, but after a few seconds did as he was told. Dr. Leykka then removed the bandages. "When were these applied?" She asked.

"Five hours ago."

"Well, theses wounds aren't too serious and are healing nicely, it should be healed completely by the end of the week." After applying a fresh set of bandages, she then removed her glasses and began rubbing her hands over Albel's chest. "You know, I'm officially off duty now." She said pointedly.

"Is that so" He said coldly, despising her. _'What is it with these people?'_ Lyekka brought her face closer to his, their lips only inches apart. Albel had a brief but appealing vision of grabbing the woman by the throat and pitching her across the room, but in the end, he tried to go the way of diplomacy.

"I should go. The boss wants us back at Eden as soon as the delivery was complete." Albel moved away from the female doctor, and as soon as he was out of the door leaned against the wall and pulled his shirt over his head. He had just pulled his jacket on and reattached his belt when something dropped out.

Stooping down to pick it up, he saw it was the Maiden of Irisa. As he picked it up, memories of how he'd come to own it flashed across his mind. Sophia and Peppita had just transported down to Moonbase, and it was Fayt's turn, but before getting on the transporter he reached into his pocket and dug out a small flower.

_"Here, Albel. I want you to have this." _

_"A flower?"_ Scorn threatened to leak into his voice.

_"Yeah, it was given to me by a girl called Ameena. It's meant to keep its owner safe on their journeys. It meant a lot to her, but I have no more use for it anymore, so I want you to have it." _

In all honesty, Fayt had expected Albel to throw the flower away – Albel saw that in his eyes and seriously considered it– but instead the swordsman had pinned it to his tunic. Fayt smiled and then disappeared in a flash of light.

"You still have it. That really means a lot to me." Albel was suddenly brought back to reality by someone's voice. Looking up, he saw a person in a hooded robe at the end of the hallway.

No sooner had he spotted it that the figure suddenly rounded around a corner and disappeared. Albel gave chase after him. He didn't know why, but there was something familiar about the person (in actuality, he was fairly sure he did know why, but he wasn't about to admit that to himself). When he rounded the corner however, the stranger was nowhere to be seen.

_'It's like he vanished into thin air, but that's impossible.'_ He thought. _'Well, unless they used a transporter, but those things made noise.'_ Shaking his head, Albel went to find Mirage and Cliff so they could return to the Pegasus.

At that moment, several thousand light years away was Quark's headquarters, the space station called Eden. Maria Traydor was staring out her office window as ships, both Quark and civilian, made their way to and from the station. Then a message came for her over the internal comm. System.

Ma'am,> it said, we're receiving a message, and the person is asking for you. Should I put it through?>

"That depends." She answered, "Any indication of where it's coming from?"

Yes Ma'am.> There was a pause, and then: It's from New Earth.>

* * *

Here it is my thrid chapter in this tale, it's taken a diffrent path then the last two but it should help the story move forward, please reviwe because I love getting feed back, once again big shout out to Tristain for his time and effort that went into this chapter. Star Ocean and all it's wonderful characters is owned by Square Enix, I on the other hand amjust a poor boy from a poor family and nobody loves me. I'll start chapter 4 as soon as I can. Peace.


	4. Childhood memories

A.N. "Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'- _Thoughts  
Blah>- Radio, comm, ect  
_"Blah"- _Dreams, memories_

* * *

_

Star Ocean Till the end of time

Reunion

Proofread by Tristian Amaryllis

Chapter 4: Childhood memories

"_Come on Clair, it'll be tons of fun, I promise!"_ She said, laughing as she ran.

Clair probably could have turned around and gone home right then,  
and she wouldn't have noticed, but her friend was far too prim

to do anything like that. Even when she was afraid.

"_I don't know about that, Nel."_ Clair put in from behind her. _"This could get us in a lot of trouble."_

"_But that's what makes it fun. Don't you see?"_

Nel turned her head to look back at Clair, never missing a step.

_"We'll be in danger. Real danger! Just like our __parents!" _

"_I don't know..." _

Finally, Nel had to stop. It was too hard to coax someone when you were outdistancing them

_"Oh, come on __Clair. Don't be such a worry wart. It's not like __anything will really happen." _

"_You promise we won't get eaten by wild dragons?"_

"_Cross my heart and hope to die."_ Nel said. She spoke with complete solemnity,  
but it was still hard to restrain herself from rolling her eyes.  
Everything with Clair seemed to come down to getting eaten by wild dragons.  
That was why she had trouble sleeping at night too.

"_Alright, we won't go too far right? And we'll be back __by this afternoon?" _

"_Of course." 'Maybe_'. She added mentally.

"_Okay, let's go."_ She said, and took off again, the moment the matter was settled.

"_Hey wait up Nel!"_ Her friend called _"Nel!"_ Now her voice hadthat shrill, whiny edge to it,  
like it always did before Clair started going into one of her tantrums.

Oh come on Clair, jeez. It's not like I'm that much faster than you.  
Besides, they needed to go quickly, if Clair wanted to be back by her precious little afternoon.  
Couldn't she see that?

"Nel!" A voice echoed. "Nel, wake up!"

"Huunh?" Gradually, the crimson-haired warrior opened her eyes, and found herself looking up at the face of  
her long-time friend and colleague, Clair. Numbly and independent of her, her mind analyzed the situation.

She had fallen asleep at her desk. And, it seemed, drooled on it rather generously as well.(A.N. Oh come on, we all do it) Clandestinely, she leaned over the table, trying to obscure that from view.

"Have you been up all night again?" Clair asked, handing her friend a cup of strong tea.

"Thanks." Nel said groggily, accepting it and taking a long sip. It tasted awful, but it was good for clearing the head.  
"There's a lot of paper work surrounding the celebration, and  
I'd like to get most of it done before we head off to Peterny."

"Times up for that, I'm afraid." Her friend smiled. "Her Majesty will be leaving soon, and you need to get ready.  
We are on escort duty y'know."

Nel sighed.

"Alright Clair." She said, rising and setting the cup down neatly on top of that spot she had been trying to hide. "Just give me ten minutes and I'll be ready"

After Clair left the room, instead of jumping to get ready as she should have, she slouched back down in the chair and thought about her dream. At the time that had happened, she had been six, and more impulsive and maniacal than she had ever been before or since. She and Clair (the latter who had to be half dragged along) had gone into the Mountains of Barr.

The place was supposed to be crawling with wild dragons, but they had spent the entire day there and not seen one.  
Nel had been completely confident in her sense of direction at the time,  
but of course, blessed with that magical ineptitude that came with being a child, she had gotten them lost.  
It had been getting dark, and finally, when Clair was bawling and Nel herself was getting close to joining her,  
they had finally found one of those elusive air dragons, and it had attacked them.

It chased them for what had felt like an eternity, finally cornering them in a tiny dead-end niche in the canyon.  
Both of them had thought that they'd had it when Clair's father Adray showed up and dispatched the thing almost casually in favour of glowering over the two of them.

She remembered looking up at him as vividly as if it had been yesterday.  
He had been a giant, six feet made entirely of frowning, loudmouthed disapproval,  
and to this day Nel had notfigured out how he had found them. Afterwards, they made their way back to Arias in silence where her father was waiting. She received a major tanning from him and hadn't been let out to play with her friends for two weeks.

Shaking those thoughts to the back of her mind for now, Nel picked up her cup,  
downed the last of the tea and made her way towards the royal bathhouse to

freshen up. Twenty minutes later, both Nel and Clair were sitting up in the back of a wagon with Tynave and  
Farleen sitting up front driving,  
They were in front of the royal coach, on their way to Peterny where the Queen would be meeting the king of Airyglyph.  
The event had been carefully organized by officials from both Kingdoms for nearly a year, which had involved a few sleepless nights for both parties. As Clair and Farleen went over the arrangements once more,  
Nel found herself daydreaming again, thinking of more of her incompetent childhood exploits.

"_Come on Dylan, give it back!"_ Claire begged the older boy as he dangled her favourite toy in front of her

"_Aww, does the little girl want her dolly back?"_ He said maliciously,  
and then laughed as his two cronies shoved her down into a puddle of mud.

"_Nice one Dil."_ One of them said.

"_Yeah, nice."_ Said the other.  
Neither of them specified exactly what was 'nice', but that was generally how they operated.  
They simply complimented Dylan on random things, and he wallowed in it like a hog.

"_Hey, you'd better make them give that back Dylan." _

The boy looked over his shoulder, and saw a redheadedgirl coming towards him,  
a girl even younger than the one they were tormenting, in fact.  
A girl who, sadly, had not yet developed her discretionary gene.

"_Hey guys, its little Nel!"_ He said. Nel hadhalf-expected one of his toadies to compliment him on noticing.  
_"Whatcha gonna do?" _

"_First I'm going to get Clair's doll back, then I'mb __gonna kick your ass."_ She said stoutly,  
and in a matter-of-fact tone.

However, what had happened next hadn't exactly been what she had hoped for,  
as roughly five seconds later, she was in the mud puddle with Clair.

"_Y'know it's not nice to pick on little girls who __can't defend themselves."_ Someone else said.

"_Huh?"_

Turning around, the five children noticed a boy with messy black hair,  
who looked about a year older than Clair, walking over towards them.

"_Who the hell are you?"_ Dylan asked_. "And what makes_

_you think you can talk big to me?" _

"_And who are you calling little girls?"_ Nel added furiously. The boy ignored her.

"_I ain't got time for you. Boys, beat him till he __can't walk no more." _

Dylan's two cronies advanced on the strange boy, but he was both faster and stronger then he looked  
and he quickly dealt with the two thugs and moved on to Dylan.

"_One more chance to give the girl back her doll and__walk away from this."_ The boy said, and then his eyes darkened. _"Before I hurt you." _

"_Hah! I'd like to see you try!"_ Dylan said. And then he charged.

The strange boy was a good fighter, quick and lithe and with inhuman reflexes  
(inhuman at least by the reckoning of a young, untrained girl), and he was certainly able to hold his own  
but Dylan was tall and wide and strong – not to mention older – and that gave him the bigger advantage.  
In less than twenty seconds, he walloped the boy in the face with a meaty fist,  
sending him crashing to the ground, and then followed it up with a stiff kick to the gut.

"_Well, so much for your hero moment."_ Dylan said,

bearing over his victim when suddenly Nel crept behind him and dropkicked the back of his leg.  
He didn't fall, as she had hoped, but it gave the boy enough time to get up,  
grab a nearby tree branch and knock Dylan unconscious with it.

"_Yeah, well I try."_ The boy (who now had a pretty nasty black eye) said as he removed the doll  
from Dylan's belt and handed it to Claire,after he helped her from the mud puddle.

"_Here."_ He said before walking off.

"_Thank you, sir!"_ Claire yelled after him, but the boy made no reply.

"NEL!" The scream, Tynave's, came from right beside her, knocking her out of her reverie.  
Even so, she had still heard everything; she had long since mastered the  
art of putting her body on autopilot – it was sort of a job requirement – and some people  
would have been surprised to know how aware she was, even when she was practically asleep.  
She snapped into full awareness already moving, and already knowing what the problem was: bandits.  
Approaching the royal coach, and not being very quiet about it.

It was nearly nightfall by the time both the wagon and the royal coach  
reached Peterny. They pulled into the city streets to the west side of town  
towards the 'Front Door Inn'.

After checking in, Nel lay down on the bed  
which, after sitting stiffly in the back of a wagon with only the occasional bandit  
to break up the journey for three days, felt as though she'd died and gone to  
'The Green fields of Apris'.

Right now the Queen was in her private room, eating a meal,  
Tynave and Farleen wereout in town,  
and Clair (who occupied the other bed in her room) was gone,  
presumably off catchingup with a subordinate.

She had no idea where Adray was.  
The plan had been for him to meet them here, but he hadn't.  
Knowing him however, he was somewhere  
sleazy, and most likely causing trouble there.

Deciding not to pass up the opportunity to sleep in a comfortable bed,  
Nel closed her eyes. She had almost dropped off when she heard a noise.  
Reflexively, she bolted upright and saw a hooded figure standing before her.

"You're as beautiful as ever." The figure said "You'd  
better rest now. They're coming"

Nel rubbed her eyes,only to find the figure gone.

* * *

Well that was chapter 4, big shout out to Tristian to cos with out his input this story wouldn't exist, please send me your comments so review me, check my profile for my e-mail address if you've got any suggestions. Things will start happening next chapter, promise. Till then, Peace. 


	5. A new Enemy

_Star Ocean Till the end of time  
_Reunion  
Proofread by Tristan Amaryllis

Chapter 5: A new Enemy

The atmosphere was tense. The scheduled meetings of Queen of Aquaria and the King of Airyglph was now delayed for its second hour. Nel sighed and rolled her eyes.

_'The Airyglph monarchy were the ones who had wanted this meeting and now they make us wait.'_ She thought impatiently.

Looking to her left, she caught a glimpse of Clair, who was standing next to an empty space where her father Adray should have been. He hadn't shown up. She suspected that Magistrate Lasselle had a hand in that...though she couldn't prove it. Somewhere Tynave and Farleen were making sure there wouldn't be any nasty surprises.

"Hey Nel! Over here!" A voice from the crowd caught Nel's attention. After a quick scan, she saw a familiar face wearing a spiked helmet and sporting a raccoon-like tail. _Oh great._

"Hello Roger." She said, putting on a pleasant front. "It's been awhile."

"Yeah, it sure has." He agreed cheerfully. "So whatcha been up to?"

"Oh, keeping busy." She replied. "How about you?"

"Business is the same as always. Going on dares, looking for treasures...you know, the usual."

"Yes." Nel said. "Yes, I certainly do."

It was coming up to the third hour, and Nel was convinced that Airyglph had screwed them over when five Air dragons flew over head, followed by the sound of bugles and drums as the Airyglph party arrived, escorted by all three of its brigades, most notably, the Dragon Brigade. The largest of the dragons swooped out of the sky and landed in front of them, and atop of it was the king of Airyglph, who swiftly dismounted his steed, took the queen's hand and kissed it.

"My dear Romeria, it has been too long." He said. "It is good to see that you are well."

"And you also." she replied. "I express my condolences on my passing of Lord Woltar"

"He was a good man and a loyal friend, but it was his time." One of his escorts handed him a small box, which when opened to reveal a small necklace shaped like a dragon. It was made of silver, with emeralds for eyes.

"Our finest jewel smiths spent three months crafting this as a gift." the king said as he presented it to her.

"It is beautiful. Thank you."

Suddenly two beams of light appeared a few meters behind the Queens party. Nel was immediately on the offensive until the light beams dissipated to reveal the familiar faces of Sophia Esteed and Maria Traydor.

Following a few idle seconds, Maria looked over at her companion. "Well we're here." She said.

"And it appears we got here at the right time." Sophia replied. Nel was not someone who was easily shocked, but in this case, she found herself speechless. Was this real, or was it some sort of illusion?

"Well, this is something you don't see every day." Maria said with a small smile spread across her face "Nel Zelpher with no sage-like words."

"Maybe there's a planetary alignment. Or maybe Hell froze over" Sophia replied, stifling a giggle.

"That's not very polite you know." Claire said as she made her way to Nel's side "Nice to see you again Ms. Traydor, Ms. Esteed."

"Yes, though it is certainly quite unexpected, it is an honor to have you here again." The Queen, who had been a little taken aback by Sophia and Maria's arrival, had regained her composure, and was now glad to be in the presence of two of the people who'd saved her world once again.

"And you Your Majesties, Ms. Lasbard." Sophia replied whilst Maria nodded.

"So why are you here?" Nel said, finally finding her voice

"Hello to you too." Maria said with a slight tinge of mock hurt in her voice.

"Would it kill you to say 'hey there you two, how's it going' once in awhile?" Sophia said

"Hey what about me? Can't a guy at least get _noticed?_" A voice came from below. Looking down, Maria and Sophia saw Roger still in the same spiked helmet, carrying an axe and wearing the same green sweater he'd been wearing last time they'd seen him in. _Oh great._

"Hi Roger." Sophia said, trying to look pleased to see him. "Have you been keeping out of trouble?"

Maria shook her head before turning her attention back to Nel and Clair. "Well, as to why we're here, you can thank Sophia for that. This little get together was her idea."

"Get together? You mean, Master Fayt and the others are coming?" Clair asked.

"Yeah, the others should be here soon." Maria said but Nel couldn't help but notice the uncomfortable look on both Maria and Sophia's faces.

Several minutes later, a small beeping sounded on her communicator. "Alright. I guess that means they're here".

Moments later, four beams of light appeared near them which after a few seconds revealed themselves to be Cliff Fitter, Mirage Koas, Peppita Rossetti and Albel Nox . Immediately Peppita launched herself at Sophia and held her in one of the tightest bear hugs she'd ever been in, before beginning to talk feverishly about several topics which seemed to be merged together almost deliriously. Nel herself was staring at Albel. She wasn't going to say it, but she had to agree he looked pretty good.

"You idiot." he was saying.

"What?" Cliff replied "Come on, you make it sound as if this is _my_ fault."

"It is your fault." Mirage put in. "You were the one who gave her all that coffee. She's been hyper the whole trip."

Nel was suddenly quite glad she had not been on said trip.

"Albel." the king said wonderingly as he made his way towards him. "It's good to see you again, my boy."

"Your Majesty." The swordsman simply replied.

"Wow." A voice said from behind the king. Emerging from the crowd came a man with short blond hair, dressed in black amour and a sly grin. "The _legendary_ Albel Nox. Albel the Wicked...or should I say perhaps...Albel the _Deserter_?"

Albel looked at him. "And who might you be, maggot?"

"My name is Alister. And I'm the new captain of the Black Brigade. And, with all due respect," He said in a voice that reflected none at all, "a much better soldier than you ever were."

"It that so?" Albel replied, holding his new gauntlet up to his face. "Why don't we put that to the test?"

"Maria," Sophia said quietly, "this might turn ugly. Shouldn't you do something?"

"I should do something, shouldn't I?" Maria replied as Alister pulled his helmet and drew a vicious looking broadsword from behind his back.

He charged at Albel, who simply stood there. Calmly, he flipped up a small section on his gauntlet to reveal a control panel, and then pressed a few buttons. Alister brought his sword down in an arc as Albel brought his left arm up.

_'Idiot, does he truly think that piece of scrap metal can protect him from my blade?'_ He thought as the sword came down.

Suddenly, before his sword could connect, an almost transparent shape appeared over Albel's gauntlet, and his sword bounced off. Using his opponents moment of confusion, Albel quickly pressed another button on the control pad and the claws began to glow a soft blue. His senses regained, Alister swung his sword at Albel again, only to see it sliced to ribbons like tissue paper by Albel's claws. Then Albel went to work on his amour, slicing through it like a hot knife through butter. Albel ripped off Alister's helmet before putting his boot in his face and sending him sprawling. Then, to the groups' surprise, the audience surrounding them burst into applause. Even the king and queen seemed to have found it entertaining.

"Bravo." The queen said, not even trying to hide her amusement. "Very well done."

"Yes," the king agreed, "quiet the show."

The Queen then dismissed them. Nel had objected, but was assured by both the Queen and Clair that they could manage with out her for a while. Heading away from the festivities and into a nearby ally, "Okay," Nel said with a hint of mistrust in her voice. "What are you doing here? And where's Fayt?"

"Yeah, where is he?" Cliff asked. "I was thinking he'd be with you two."

Once again Sophia and Maria had uncomfortable looks on their faces.

"What is it?" Mirage inquired "Is there a reason why Fayt's not here?"

"Fayt's gone" Sophia said in a small voice. "He disappeared two years ago." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out Fayt's letter. "This letter is all he left behind. There were messages for all of you." She paused for a moment before reading aloud.

"Dear Sophia

If you've not already sussed out from this seeing this letter attached to your door, I'm not going to be around anymore. I've been doing a lot of thinking and have come to this conclusion I can no longer stay, I apologize if this causes you any distress but the destruction gene still lies within me thanks to my father's experiment. Though he meant well, he probably didn't foresee what kind of life we would have after the war with the Creator was over. And because of his tampering, I can never live a normal life. You have been my friend since I can remember and I can never express how much it means to me. If you should ever see the others again please pass these messages on:

Tell that great knucklehead Cliff that he is arrogant and egocentric and I wouldn't have him any other way.

Tell iron willed Maria that she is a great leader and an incredible woman who no man could resist.

Tell ever-obedient Mirage that I admire her coolness and level headedness and her uncanny ability to kick serious ass when she needs to.

Tell energetic Peppita that without her humor and good nature we might never have got through some pretty dark times.

Tell Roger that I enjoyed his company and I'm sure one day he'll be a great leader.

Tell Adray that his experience and wisdom were a great help on our quest.

Tell kind hearted Nel that she has a special place in my heart and I'm sure she'll meet someone who can give her the love and affection she deserves.

And finally tell honorable Albel that he is one of the greatest friends I gained during our adventure and can think no I'd rather have to help me get out of trouble.

Tell them that their friendship is always carried in my heart where ever I go and is treasured higher then any amount of money or precious gems.

There are questions that I need answers to and I won't find them by hanging around here and so I must go out into the universe and find them myself. Even though it pains me to do so, this journey is too dangerous to take you with me. I don't know if you'll ever see me again but please don't waste your tears worrying about me.

All my love

Fayt Leingod"

The group was silent as Sophia finished the letter she then passed it around for them to look at.

"This is why I got us all together, so I could pass these messages on to you guys."

Cliff folded his arms as he confronted Maria "Why didn't you tell us about this?" He said, not bothering to hide the hurt in his voice. "We could have looked for him."

Maria didn't answer. The look on her face told Cliff all he needed to know. Peppita walked over to Sophia who was wiping away a tear. Reading that letter seemed to have brought back a lot of painful memories

"Sophia, why didn't you tell us?"

"Because..." She began, and then faltered. '_Why? Why_ hadn't _she told them before this?' _"I...I thought maybe he'd come back." She answered at last.

There was another uneasy silence before someone spoke up. "Come on, lets get a drink."

Looking over their shoulders, the group saw Albel leaning against a wall with Sophia's letter in his hand. "There's no point dwelling on what's already happened, is there?" He said, then straightened up and walked past them in a way that seemed a little too deliberate.

"He's right, you know." Mirage said. "There's no point dwelling on things we can't do anything about. Anyway, Cliff still has to make good on our bet."

Nel, Mirage, Maria, Sophia, Peppita and Roger sat down at their table whilst Cliff and Albel were getting their drinks. Though she didn't let it show, Nel was in shock. The idea that Fayt would just up and leave was something she wasn't willing to except, but the message that Sophia passed on to her made her even more confused.

_'Tell kind hearted Nel that she has a special place in my heart and I'm sure she'll meet someone who can give her the love and affection she deserves_. Those had been his words to her. _Does this mean he... no he can't be... he and I could never...'_ Nel was brought back to reality when Albel put her drink on the table before sitting down across from her. A moment later, Cliff was back as well.

"Well, I guess this occasion calls for a toast." Cliff said in a cheery voice to which everyone except Albel agreed.

"To a joyful reunion." Cliff said as the group raised their glasses.

"And to Fayt." Sophia spoke up. "Let him be safe and happy where ever he is."

"TO FAYT." Everyone said and drained their glasses.

Over the next two hours Nel listened to Cliff, Mirage and Maria's stories with Albel adding occasional comments.

"... so there I am sitting at the table with the ruler of Abdanna 4, tension running high, I ask the dealer to draw me another card I look at it and boom full house, I win, we walk out of there with our heads still attached to our bodies and these two are singing my praises all the way back to Eden." Cliff said in a smug tone.

"Funny. I don't remember it happening like that." Albel said as he swilled the amber liquid around in the glass before taking a swig.

"What's that supposed to mean" Cliff inquired. "I won didn't I?"

"No maggot, you didn't. You tried to cheat, just like always. And you got _caught_. Just like always. I would hardly call that 'winning'."

"'Like always'?" Sophia asked.

"Cliff can't cheat at cards to save his life. Or, ours, on that occasion." Mirage said.

"Hey," Cliff protested, "we're alive to tell the tale aren't we?"

"Only because we ran like hell all the way back to the Pegasus. And because Mirage is a good enough pilot to not get us shot down." Albel said before draining his drink.

"You ran from a fight?" Sophia said with a slight chuckle before taking a sip from her drink.

She had expected anger, but Albel's tone was merely mock-serious. He looked at her. "When you travel around with this idiot, discretion is the first thing you learn. If I didn't run from fights, I'd have killed half the people in this galaxy by now."

There were a few moments of silence before Cliff changed the subject. "You'll have to excuse Mr. Grumpy over there." Cliff said. "He recently got out of a relationship, and he's still all huffy about it." Nel nearly choked on her drink at this, having heard the two words she'd never thought to hear in the same sentence: 'Albel' and 'relationship'.

"He claims it was just easy sex," Cliff continued blithely as Albel fumed, "but he spent nearly a year with that woman."

Sophia, Nel, Roger and Peppita stared at the fuming swordsman, who seemed to notice them only after a long while. "What are you all looking at?" He snarled. "I'm a male. I have needs."

Then he turned his gaze at Cliff. "At least I can find someone. This weakling couldn't get women to save his pathetic existence."

"What'd you say?" Came the indignant reply.

"You heard me maggot."

"You wanna come over here and say that to my face!"

"Gladly!" Albel returned.

"Are those two always like this?" Sophia asked.

"Every hour of every day." Mirage replied, in a tone that suggested a resigned sort of acceptance. "Though honestly, it's not like Albel hasn't had any offers to help him get over her. Women on every planet we go to seem to throw themselves at him."

"Hmm." Nel said, trying to sound thoughtful and detached, but if any of the group had looked at her, they would have noticed a vein pounding on her head.

The group left the inn an hour later, and made their way back to the square where the festivities where taking place. They went to find a spot to watch the show, Albel still catching dirty looks from the Airyglyph camp. The performers were very good, but nonetheless, Nel's attention kept wandering to the crimson eyed man standing next to her.

_'Damn it Zelpher get a grip. Why do you even care about what Albel does.'_ She mentally cried at herself. '_He's not a friend just a one time comrade. Soon as this is over he'll be gone and you never have to see him again.'_ That thought should have been appealing, but somehow it wasn't.

"Those guys are pretty good, huh?" Nel had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't realized that someone was behind her and speaking to her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Cliff with Peppita sitting on his shoulders.

"You _think_ they're good." Peppita said airily. "Anything these amateurs can do the Rossetti's could do _way_ better."

"I suppose. I don't get a lot of time to observe this kind of thing." Nel replied "And these people are hardly amateurs, Peppita"

"Shows what you know." The small girl said.

Nel was about to reply when something came over her. She didn't know why but a sudden sense of foreboding washed over her senses. '_Be prepared, they're coming!'_ A strange voice screamed at her. Nel could not place the feeling, but she had never resisted instinct. Looking around, she drew her daggers.

"Get everyone out of here." She told her companions almost casually as she made her way through the crowd before they had a chance to protest. The performers were just finishing their act when something that wasn't planned happened (although a few of the onlooker apparently took it for part of the show at first): it was as if the space around them shattered like glass and creatures dressed in amour carrying large scythes appeared. Nel rushed towards the creatures.

"Get out of here!" She yelled as the performers and crowds dispersed in a panic. During her adventures with Fayt and the others, Nel had fought many creature but these were like nothing she'd ever seen before. It wasn't that they were particularly strong; she could defeat them relatively easily, to be honest. It was the sheer number of them, so many that she was soon overwhelmed.

After a particularly fierce exchange, she found herself knocked to the ground, her weapons knocked out of her hands, and one of the creatures standing over her with its scythe raised. She closed her eyes, awaiting the finishing blow. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes she saw the creature bleeding on the ground. Albel was standing over her his sword covered in a black liquid, carrying the creatures scythe "You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so." She replied, slightly taken aback by his apparent actions.

"Good." He said as he began hacking away at another of the creatures. "Then get up, worm, and prove that you deserve to live."

As Nel got up, she saw the others had joined the fray as well, and a number of Aquarian and Airyglyph soldiers were herding a panicking crowd away from the battle while others joined the battle with them.

Eventually, the armored creatures began to overwhelm them. No matter how many Nel, Albel, Mirage and the others cut down more seemed to take their place, and soon they were backed into a corner.

"Damm it." Cliff said in frustration.

"What do we do now?" Sophia exclaimed.

"We fight to the last and die with honor." Albel said raising his blood drenched blade. The attempt to rally people around him was unconscious, but it was still proof that he had not grown out of his leadership role in the Black Brigade, even after years away from the planet.

"You're not serious?" Roger said.

"No, he's right." Nel said defiantly. "If I'm gonna die, I'm doing it fighting, not backed into a corner like a rat."

Suddenly a strange shape appeared in the sky and a figure dressed in a hooded robe dropped out of it, all members of the group watched as he hit the ground, the robe flew off revealing his face

"Oh my god, It's him." Sophia whispered. "It's Fayt"

Her tone was a sort of disbelieving joy, but it was short-lived as one of the armored creatures launched a very powerful fire based spell, engulfing Cerulean haired boy with large stream of fire.

* * *

Well that was chapter 5 and things are begining to happen so send me your comments and tellme it rocked or it crashed & burned. I'm just a poor boy from a poor familiy and nobody loves me, I'm currently in the process of rounding off chapter 6& I hope to have it posted ASAP. till then Keep on truckin. 


	6. Reunion

A.N.- "Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'_- Thoughts  
Blah>-Radio, Comm ect  
_Blah- _Memories, Dreams, Lyrics

* * *

_Star Ocean Till the end of time  
_Reunion  
Proofread by Tristan Amaryllis

Chapter 6: Reunion  
A strange shape appeared in the sky and a figure dressed in a hooded robe dropped out of it. All members of the group watched as he hit the ground. The robe flew off to reveal his face

"Oh my god," Sophia whispered, "It's him. It's Fayt."

Suddenly one of the armored creatures launched a very powerful fire based spell, engulfing Cerulean haired boy with large stream of fire. For a moment everything was still. Nothing moved. It was as if time had stopped. Sophia could only stare as Fayt was consumed by the fire. Her oldest friend was being burned to a cinder before her eyes, the same boy who used to beat up the other kids when they made fun of her – or at least tried to. For the past two years she'd hoped and wished and prayed to see him again, even if just for a moment, and now that she'd found him again he was taken away.

What happened next was beyond belief. At first, Sophia was sure that her grief-ridden mind was playing tricks on her: the flames that had smothered the boy's body rose from the ground, taking the form of a giant bird that floated above his head. He stood beneath it, completely unharmed as the bird then launched itself at a large group of the creatures and incinerated them.

"What the hell?" She heard Albel mutter under his breath. Another large group of the creatures were advancing upon Fayt, who simply stood there with his eyes closed. Suddenly, he began singing a song in a strange language, utterly alien to Sophia's ears.

_Vaiyo a-o_

_Vaiyo a-o Home va ya ray_

_Vaiyo a-o rah Jerhume Brunnen-G_

_Vaiyo a-o_

_A home va ya ray_

_Vaiyo a-o rah Jerhume Brunnen-G_

_Vaiyo a-o rah_

_Jerhume Brunnen-G_

Once he'd finished, Fayt charged forward, slicing through the creatures as if they were made of paper. A large group of the creatures appeared behind him, seemingly too many to defeat even with his skill. But then a large symbol appeared on the ground, and his body began to glow with energy, which was channeled into his sword. Then he launched it at the attacking legion, which reduced them to nothing, before moving on to the another group and adding them to the body count.

Finally, Albel's pride couldn't take any more. There was no way in hell Fayt was going to outfight him, so he charged forward, and made short work of a small group of the armored creatures. Soon the others joined the fray, but even in the midst of the battle they couldn't help but watch the boy they all thought they knew. They way he moved, the way he fought – everything was different than the way it had been in their battles with him two years ago. More to the point, he seemed to be freely tapping into the Destruction Gene, freely tapping into powers that he had not even been fully willing to admit to two years ago. Suddenly, in the heat of the battle there was a giant flash of light, which revealed a figure standing in the middle of the square wearing a long black leather coat and a shroud that vaguely resembled a gasmask. The moment the creature appeared, the legion of monsters in the square retreated formed into line behind it, almost as though they were waiting for the figure to lead them into battle.

"Well, this is an interesting coincidence." It said in a low chilling voice. "The Creator send his ultimate weapon, and it sings the battle song of the Brunnen-G."

Those word made the group stop in their tracks.

"Did he just say 'the Creator?'" Maria said in a half whisper, which was followed by similar rebuttals from her comrades.

"Impossible. He's dead." Cliff spat.

"We were there. We saw it happen."

"No, no he can't have survived. He just can't have." Sophia said her voice shaky in fear. Even Nel, whose years of conditioned helped her to restrain a similar outburst, and who thought that nothing at all could scare her found herself breaking out in a cold sweat upon mention of that madman. Fayt never took his eyes off the figure in the mask.

"Lerajie." He snarled as two blades extended abruptly from Lerajie's wrists. In that instant, Fayt held out his left hand towards the fallen form of an Airyglyph solider, and his sword flew into Fayt's outstretched hand before the two enemies charged at each other and clashed. In a split-second decision born of battlefield instinct, Nel leapt in to help her friend, but before she reached the battle, the legions attacked them again, leaving Fayt to battle his opponent alone. The fight between the two of them was brutal, both them on the receiving end of some spectacular attacks and vicious cuts, and still apparently ready for more punishment. No quarter was asked and none was given.

"Must we do this?" Lerajie asked Fayt between parries. "Why must we waste each other's time with these fruitless bouts? We are equally matched in skill, speed, power and technique, except in the one area where I can outperform you every time."

He leaped back, and locked into a defensive position. His hands began to glow with a strange alien light, which was then fired at Fayt like a projectile that sent him flying into a nearby building.

"Your heart just isn't in this, you know." Lerajie said. "I always put some emotion into my battles, whilst you on the other hand just don't care whether you get killed or not. Although of course I'm sure dying here and now sounds a lot better than what awaits you."

His right hand began glowing again and fired it at Fayt. The beam had been aimed at the boy's head, but he moved at the last second and ended up taking the brunt of the assault in his left shoulder. Sophia stared as blood poured from Fayt's wound but it was the look on his face that horrified her the most, a look of pure rage and hatred. The kind of hatred she believed had no place in his heart.

In a split second Fayt was on his feet again, and he charged at Lerajie as though the wound didn't even bother him. Before he could reach his enemy however, all the remaining armored creatures appeared in front of him to defend their leader. Once again Fayt's body began glowing with energy as he tapped into his Destruction Gene. He transferred the power into his swords before he drove them into the ground, which moved through the dirt as waves of energy towards the wall of enemies and wiped them completely out of existence, leaving Lerajie alone on the battlefield with no one to guard him.

"Lerajie." Fayt snarled as he advanced toward his opponent.

The other man laughed. "Maybe another time Leingod." He said before vanishing as mysteriously as he had appeared. Sophia approached her long time friend as he pulled out a small communicator.

"Leingod to Creator. Objective complete." He then turned around and found himself face to face with Sophia. However, any questions she might have asked were silenced when she looked into his eyes. Eyes, which had always been filled with, hope and joy, and now seemed to contain nothing but coldness and desolation. He brushed passed her and absently picked his cloak up from the floor.

Suddenly, he fell to his knees and began to make a strange choking sound. The others made their way towards him.

"NO…_stay…back!_" Fayt said through his clenched teeth. Then he took a small vial containing a sickly looking yellow liquid from the leather pouch on his belt and put it into his mouth as he retrieved an injection gun. He inserted the vial into it before injecting the liquid into his neck.

The second the last of the fluid entered his body, Fayt dropped the tool and collapsed, his entire body going into violent spasm and making sickly noises before he passed out. Sophia rushed over to his and rested his head on her knees, and said words she already knew would not reach him.

"Fayt." She said. "Fayt wake up."

* * *

A.N.- Finally chapter 6 is here so send me your coments and tell me did it rock or did it crash and burn. Chapter 7 is in the works. Later 


	7. Revelations

AN "Blah"- Normal speech  
'Blah'- Thoughts  
Blah>-Comm., radio ect  
_"Blah"_- Dreams, memories_

* * *

_

_Star Ocean Till the end of time  
_Reunion

Chapter 7: Revelations 

"NO…_stay…back_!" Fayt said through his clenched teeth, he then took a small vial containing a sickly looking yellow liquid from the leather pouch on his belt and put it into between his teeth as he reached into the pouch again and brought out an injection gun, he inserted the vial into it before injecting the liquid into his neck. The second the last of the fluid had entered his body Fayt dropped the tool and collapsed his entire body going into violent spasm and making sickening noises before passing out, Sophia rushed over to his and rested his head on her knees

"Fayt, Fayt wake up."

It had been three hours since the battle and Fayts amazing return. He was now in the infirmary on board the Diplo, the medical technician decided based on Fayt's performance on Elicoor that he was isolated from the rest of the crew, even Maria couldn't get in to see him. Maria, Sophia and Peppita were in privet quarters whilst Albel, Mirage and Cliff had returned to the Pegasus awaiting further updates, and all this time Nel was sitting in her room at the 'Front Door Inn' feeling helpless and completely useless and she hated feeling like this.

"Damn it!" she cursed as she pounded her fist on the table "They left me behind, they took that stinkin deserter Albel with them but not me. Why did I get left behind?" She was so busy ranting she didn't notice Clair entering the room

"I'm sure Master Fayt will pull through without you at his side," Clair said which startled Nel slightly, not that she showed it "or is that the problem, he doesn't need you."

"Leave me alone Clair." Nel replied grumpily Clair was about to say something when suddenly a bleeping sound, on the table in front of them was the communicator that Maria had given Nel so she could be informed of any developments. Picking it up Nel pressed a few of the buttons on it before Maria voice was heard on the other end

…Hello Nel…its Maria…do you read me…>

"HELLO, MARIA I'M HERE. CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Nel yelled into the devise

…Yes Nel I can hear you and thanks to you I've gone slightly deaf, you don't need to shout…> Maria replied

"What's happening?" Nel asked ignoring her comment

…The med techs have finished checking out Fayt and they're ready to present their findings, we can teleport you to the Diplo whenever you're ready…>

"Alright transport for one A.S.A.P." Nel said into the devise

"Make that for two." Nel turned around to see her grey haired friend standing behind her with her arms folded and a determined look on her face "I'm coming as well."

"What! Why doe you want to come Clair?"

Clair closed her eyes as she remembered the events of a few hours ago she wasn't directly involved in the fight she'd been busy helping getting Her Majesty and the civilians to safety but she had witnessed Fayt's return and the way he'd fought and behaved shocked her. She remembered the first time she'd met the azure haired boy how'd he go from being like that to a cold-hearted slaughter machine and she was going to find out

"Someone has to keep you out of trouble." She lied "Clair you've never been on a starship before, it would be the biggest culture shock of your life."

"I don't care I'm going."

"Alright." Nel said in a defeated tone "Did you hear all that Maria?"

…Loud and clear…> Maria replied, returning her gaze to her friend Nel gave Clair a quizzical look

"Just stick close to me and don't touch anything." Nel said to her before they both disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing in the teleporter room on the Diplo. The two of them where greeted by Maria and a surly looking security guard

"Nel glad you could make it. Ms Lasbard, this is unexpected." Maria said as she stepped forward to great them

"How is he Ms Traydor?" Clair asked,

"I don't know, they won't let me in to see him." Maria replied as she led the two Elicoorian women to the conference room.

Inside where Sophia, Peppita, Cliff and Mirage where seated around the circular table waiting for the news whilst Albel was staring out of the window at the planet below. The chief medical officer and her aide entered the room not long after the three women sat down

"Dr how is?" Maria asked "And why won't you let us see him?"

"Based on Mr Leingod's performance on Elicoor II we thought it was best and these finding have only strengthened that belief." The doctor said,

"What do you mean," Cliff asked "what are you not telling us?"

"And what about that stuff he injected himself with, what was that stuff?" Peppita asked

"Hmm," they heard Albel snort, "The maggot disappears for two years and becomes a junkie. I'm sure there's some kind of poetic sense of irony in there."

"How can you say that?" Sophia snapped, "Fayt isn't a junkie, he'd never ever use drugs."

"Then what else could that vile junk be?" Albel said with a small smirk on his face "We where all there, we all saw him shooting up." The silence that filled the room was so tense the group could have choked on it

"You should all prepare yourselves for the worst." The doctor said "Ms Mazaki please activate the holo-display." The lights then dimmed and a holographic image appeared from out of the middle of the table showing Fayts battle with Lerajie Clair looked at it in amazement and got a shock when her hand passed through it when

"It's a hologram Ms Lasbard." Maria told her "It's a computer generated image, it's not real."

"We ran various tests on Mr Leingod whilst he was unconscious and the findings where quiet disturbing. It's the Destruction gene his father Dr Leingod implanted in him, it has taken a greater toll on him then he could ever imagine, the damage it's causing him is on the cellular level." There was a lengthy pause as the doctor allowed the group to absorb the information

"There's no way to sugar coat this I'm afraid, the destruction gene it's killing him, burning out his cells one at a time." The doctor then brought out one of the small vials that was in Fayt's pouch "The substances in this vial is some sort of neural relaxant, he had a large amount of this stuff on him of various dose amounts."

"Wait a second!" Sophia snapped, "Are you saying Fayt is going to die?"

"I'm afraid so." The doctor replied. There was a long silence everyone was absorbed with their thoughts

_'There must be some mistake, Fayt can't die he just can't.' _Maria thought whilst fighting against the tears that where forming in her eyes

_'This can't be happening. I just found him again.' _Sophia was mentally screaming

_'This is totally unreal. After all the things he's fought this is how it'll end!' _Cliff thought whilst trying to push away a feeling of defeat

_'Too bad, looks like I won't be getting my rematch after all.'_ "Wait a moment." Albel said as something occurred to him "How did the fool pull off that trick with the fire?"

"Well that is quiet interesting." The doctor said and a few moments later the holodisplay was showing two images both of which was of Fayt's head one was of his face whilst the other was a profile and was showing the inside of his skull "We ran a cranial scan on Mr Leingod and the results are rather interesting, does anyone know what the Natpudan theory is?"

"I do." Mirage said "I accompanied my father to one of his seminars last time I was on Klaus. The basic theory is that the mind is the single most powerful force in the universe, that the mind apparently has almost limitless potential."

"Correct, it is theorized that the average person only uses 20 percent of their brain leaving the other 80 percent untapped. It seems as the destruction gene slowly consume his body it also allows him to tap into the psychic sensitive areas of the mind, what you saw was pyrokinesis, the mental manipulation of fire. Based on these findings he may also be capable telepathy and telekinesis."

"Tele what?" Clair said slightly confused

"Telepathy: the ability to read minds." Albel said before anyone else could answer Clairs question "And telekinesis: the ability to move objects using only your thoughts."

Before anyone else could say anything a beeping was heard

"Go ahead." Maria said pressing a button in front of her

…Lady Maria…> a frantic voice at the other end …Mr Leingod has escaped from the medical facility…a security detail has sent to subdue him but they were no match…we need back up now…> the line suddenly when dead

"Hello, hello. Can anyone hear me?" Maria asked franticly "Let's get down there." She said to the others. Fayt stood over the fallen forms of the security team that had tried to stop him from braking out of the ships medical facility. After restocking his pouch and wrapping his cloak around him, he made his way towards the transporter room only to find more resistance but he put them down pretty quickly. Soon he reached where he wanted to go

"Don't even think about it fool!" looking around he saw Albel and the others rushing towards him instantly he tapped into his new found telekinetic power and used it to hurl Cliff, Mirage, Clair and Peppita into a nearby wall knocking them unconscious

_'Pathetic!'_ he thought as he drew a laser pistols he'd stolen from a member of the security team, set it to stun and shot Maria in the leg, Nel and Albel tried a two pronged attack but Fayt caught their blades using his sword and then using their momentum against them pushed them away and sent Nel crashing to the ground with a vicious side kick attack before he and Albel clashed, the sound of steel striking could be heard all along the corridor with a force so great it knock the swords out of the fighters hands.

For a few seconds the two combatants stared into each other's eyes sizing each other up then in a spilt second Albel activated the control panel on his arm guard and Fayt went for his gun but the Elicoorian swordsman got there first punching the Earthling in the face his fist glowing a soft blue, as Fayt feel to the ground Albel felt a sense of pride welling up inside him

_'I win.'_ But that feeling of victory was quickly dashed as Fayt got shakily to his feet

"Nod a bid shot Abel." Fayt said in a distorted voice "Jud giv me a secnd to wewocate muh jaw an puth my eyeball bag in plathe."

Albel's eyes widened in shock, being a hardened soldier he'd seen and done many disturbing things and had taken it all in his stride but the sight of Fayt with his lip crooked and blood flowing out of his right eye and other areas of his face actually scared him, a sickening crunching sound was heard as Fayt snapped his jaw back into place which followed by him pushing his eyeball back into it's socket

"Ahhh, tha's bedder. You ready?" Fayt snarled as he glowed once again with destructive power though at a lower level as the light wasn't so bright this time, the power was then transferred into his fist which the connected with Albel's face which sent him flying backwards and crashed into Nel.

Surveying his handiwork Fayt saw Sophia staring at him her eyes wide with fear unable to bring herself to fight with him, giving the people he once called allies and friend one last look Fayt picked up his sword and gun from the ground and walked into the transporter room. A few minutes later the others began to peel themselves off the ground each of them feeling pretty sour Albel gingerly got to his feet limped his way to the door using his sword as a support vaguely registering Maria saying he was in no shape to go anywhere

_'This isn't over Leingod.'_ Approaching the door he found it wouldn't open

"Damn it, the maggot must have sealed it from the inside." Feeling the wall next to the door he found what he was looking for he removed a section of the wall to reveal a control panel and began typing furiously and a second later the door hissed open

_'I love this thing.'_ Upon entering they discovered the room was empty

"Damn." Cliff said "He's now on the surface."

"Then what are we standing around for?" Mirage said "Lets saddle up and get after him."

"Alright lets role." Peppita said,

"You're not going anywhere Peppita." Maria said as she leaned on Sophia for support "What!" Peppita exclaimed,

"It's too dangerous and we can't protect you and defend ourselves at the same time." The blue haired woman said sternly

"Yeah well I'm going. It was just as dangerousas the war with Luther but Fayt trusted me enough to let me come." The small girl snapped as she ran to the transporter with the others in tow Maria muttered about how this was really not a great idea.

Whilst this was going on Fayt had already emerged on the surface just south of Peterny and made his way through the crowds towards the town centre, many people where giving him funny looks but just brushed them off

_'__Let them stare.'_

Upon reaching the town centre he saw what he was seeking in front of the church of Apris was the gateway, which would not only transport him off this planet and this whole universe.

The only hitch was that it was guarded by four burly looking characters, no doubt Nel would have told the Queen that the shape that was now nestled on the ground was very dangerous and that no one should go near it. The four of them saw Fayt approaching them

"Halt in the name of her Majesty." One of them said as Fayt stepped in front of them.

By the time Nel and the others arrived on the surface they'd lost sight of the blue haired warrior but fortunately he wasn't going to be difficult to find as he'd left a trail of blood for them to follow which was heading into town, when they reached the town centre they saw him standing in front the gateway the four men assigned to guard it on the floor

"FAYT." Cliff called out "Don't do it kid." Fayt looked over his shoulder his left eye giving them a cold look whilst his right continued to bleed, he then looked away and stepped into the gateway vanishing from view

_'Just great.' _Maria mentally growled as she and the others approached the gateway.

All except Nel she simply stood there and watched the others as they stepped into it, looking over her shoulder she saw Clair looking at her

"Go," she said, "I know that you want to."

"I can't just up and leave." Nel replied, "My duties here are…"

"Don't give me that." Clair said her tone very serious "Your not happy here, you haven't been happy with your life since you got back from your adventure with your friends." There was a tense silence between the two of them

"I'd love to go with you," Clair continued "see all the sights that you saw but we both know I can't follow you in there." Nel knew that her friend was right.

After the war with Luther ended two years ago she returned home to Elicoor II and just expected things would go back to the way things were before Fayt, Cliff and Mirage crash-landed on her world but it didn't work out that way, so she tried to distract herself with her work which helped but sometimes when it was late at night and all her work was done her mind would sometimes wonder leaving her body, the room, the country, hell the whole planet behind and would drift amongst the stars, and the dreams didn't help much either, on occasion she'd have dreams about her friends from beyond the stars though curiously most of the time they involved herself and either or both Albel and Fayt. Once again the words to her in Fayt's letter echoed through her mind,

"Tell her Majesty I will return once I'm finished Clair." Nel said to Clair as she walked towards the gateway, she wasn't entirely sure what Fayt's words meant but she was going to find out, Clair stood there smiling as she watched friend step into the gateway and disappear

"No you won't." she said as the gateway disappeared.

* * *

A.N. Well here is chapter 7 sorry it took so long to up load but I started university and they've already dumped several different assignments with ridiculously short deadlines on me leaving me very little time to do any thing else. Sorry if this chapter isn't up to the same scratch as the others but even though I sent this to proof reader the genius that is Tristan Amaryllis he never got back to me, Tristan if your reading this where the fuck are you, if your having trouble getting through try my alternate email address shmlondonmet.ac.uk. I also apologize if the characters are a little OC. If the beta read copy of this chapter comes through I'll post it however if anyone else would like the job contact me at the address above or check my profile for my hotmail account. Till next time peace.


	8. Old times

A.N.- "Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'_- Thoughts  
Blah>- Comm., radio ect_

* * *

_

_Star Ocean Till the end of time  
_Reunion

Chapter 8: Like old times  
It was strange to believe but the seven of them had once again left their universe behind and entered another plane of existence, if they'd not done it before they would have thought they were on another planet.

"So here we are again." Cliff said as Nel appeared "Well come on, were not going to find Fayt by standing around here."

Stepping out of the terminal room the group once again found themselves in Gemity, the people walking around dressed up in period costumes so they'd blend in when they entered the 'Eternal Sphere' dressed as they where no one in the crowd would have looked at Nel and the others twice.

As back on Elicoor Fayt had left a trail of blood but now it getting was difficult to follow because

A) the blood was getting thin and B) the crowds where pretty thick and had walked through their feet now stained with his blood

"Over there." Mirage yelled and looking in the direction she was pointing they saw a person with blue hair mixed in with the sea of endless people.

Fayt made his way towards the station

"Sphere Company." He said before entering the transporter, when he reappeared he found himself in the now familiar halls of the Sphere company letting out a small sigh he began walking towards another transporter which would take him up to the next floor.

When he emerged he was greeted by a woman who was around the same age as him wearing a simple uniform a pair of glasses and had long pink hair which she had tied up in a bun

"Your late." She said to him

"Hello Linna. Here escort me!" he said in his now usual cold tone

"That look's painful." Linna said

"Yeah, guess it does." Fayt replied as he touched his face to find his eye had stopped bleeding

"You push yourself too hard," Linna said to him whilst he tried to ignore her "just because you can now heal faster doesn't mean you totally unkillable."

"I don't have a problem with death, he follows…" Fayt stopped in mid sentence and turned away from Linna

"What is it?" she asked not even trying to hide the concern in her voice

"Nothing," he replied "just my eye."

He then pushed it back into it socket again, which caused it to start bleeding again. Turning back to face the woman next to him Linna then leaned over and touched his face and gave him a small smile

"Lets go get you cleaned up." Fayt simply shrugged his shoulders and the two of them set off

"Oh you are aware that you where followed don't you?" Linna asked just before they reached the next transporter

"Eh, let security take care of it." Fayt said before the two of them entered the transporter.

Nel and the others entered the transporter station but they were too late, Fayt had already been transported someplace else, looking around they saw a guard standing just next to the transporter and Mirage approached him

"Excuse me sir," she said in a would be calm tone "one of our group has gotten lost, 21, blue hair, green eyes, kinda cute lookin. You haven't seen him have you?"

"As a matter of fact I did see someone almost fitting your description. He transported outta here a few minutes ago." The guard said "But to be honest I don't know what your definition of cute is, kid looked pretty beat up to me."

"Do you know where he went?" Cliff asked,

"I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to give you that information." The guard said

"Please sir," Peppita said putting on the cute little girl act big puppy eyes included "our friend is all lost, please we gotta find him." however the guy was not buying Peppita's cutesy act

"Like I said I'm not allowed to give you that…"

However he was unable to complete his sentence as Albel then grabbed him by the throat

"Where is he, where'd he go?" Albel snarled but the man in his clutches seemed to panicked to speak,

"Y'know It's been a while since I killed a guy on impulse but God help me I'll do it unless you tell me what I want to know."

"Sphere company." the guard said breathing heavily

Albel then head butted the man, which knocked him unconscious

"Let's go." Albel said and the group made their way towards the transporter.

In no time at all they found themselves in Sphere Company, suddenly an alarm went off and a number of heavily armed security men arrived

"HALT." One of the men shouted "MAKE ANY ATTEMPT TO MOVE AND WE'LL BE FORCED TO FIRE."

"Oh please." Cliff said in a cocky tone as he cracked his knuckles

"Get out of our way, fools." Albel snarled as he drew his sword "I'm givin all of ya ten second to get out of my way and crawl back into your maggot holes before I decorate this place your worthless bodies. Ten…"

"Your bluffing." The man that had yelled at them replied

"nine…"

"I can assure you he's not bluffing." Mirage said as she rubbed her fist in her other hand

"eight…seven…"

"Men, if they as much as raise an eyebrow kill them."

"six…five…"

"Listen, let's just calm down," Maria said as she shakily removed herself from Sophia's shoulder "there's no reason for us to fight. We're just…" before Maria could finish playing diplomat one of the armed men fired a large ball of crackling blue energy at her, the shot connected with her midsection and sent her falling to the floor, the others stared at the form of the blue haired woman lying on the floor as two more shots were fired which caused Sophia and Peppita to fall to the ground.

For a moment Albel, Mirage, Nel & Cliff were unable to move their eyes fixed on their fallen comrades,

Cliff let out a cry before charging at the group of soldiers who opened fire. Being Klausian Cliff was a more resilient to most forms of particle weapons not immune to them (despite what he'd told a certain cerulean haired boy on Vangauard IV) however if took seven or eight shots to bring both him and Mirage down leaving Nel and Albel to fight alone but Albel hadn't recovered from his battle with Fayt and Nel couldn't hold off so many opponents by herself and the two of them were quickly overwhelmed.

Nel grudgingly opened her eyes, every part of her body was protesting and she felt like someone was pounding a very large rock against her head from the inside of her skull closing her eyes again for a few seconds before opening them again and stared at the pristine white ceiling with a single neon strip light attached to it then looking down she found herself lying on a metallic cot with a thinish mattress lain over the top which was rested against a wall of a small room which she estimated was 10ft by 12ft

_'Is this death, because if it is I really disappointed.'_ She thought to herself totally unaware she was currently smiling at her own joke _'So if I'm not dead it means something far worse. I'm alive.'_

Getting up off the cot she noticed three things

1) her daggers were gone

2) she felt kind of strange like something was missing but she shrugged that off as part of the effects of whatever she'd been shot with

3) she had a black and quite bulky contraption strapped to her wrist.

She noticed the door, which obviously wouldn't open on this side and she was pretty sure it would be a waste of time and effort to try to open it by force but she was pretty certain she could bring it down with an 'Earth Glaive' spell.

She got in to position preparing to gather her runeological power and unleash a powerful earth based spell but nothing happened, that was what was wrong, normally she could feel the runeological energy flowing through her but now she felt nothing. For the first in a very long time Nel felt defenceless, weak and helpless and she hated it.

For a long time Nel had built up an image of being a strong woman and though at time was seen as frigid and cold but as long as the job was done and she did her duty she couldn't give half a fuck what others thought of her, she collapsed back on the cot, leaned against the wall.

She didn't know how long she sat there and she might have nodded off at one point but eventually the door of the room opened and two heavily armed men

"Come with us," one of them pointing his weapon at her "the creator wants to have a few words with you and your little friends and don't try anything funny that thing on your writs will discharge several thousand volts of electricity through your body and it won't stop till it fries you from the inside out." Nel nodded and exited the room.

Outside she saw Sophia, Peppita who were wearing similar devises strapped to their wrists and Mirage and Cliff who were also bound by chains which emitted a soft green glow

"There were two more members of our group, where are they?" Cliff trying not to let his anger colour his voice and failing miserably

"They are receiving medical treatment but they will be joining you very soon." One of the armed men replied.

The group was led to a transporter, which brought them to a room with a large set of double doors

"Wait here." One of the guards said, he then opened one of the doors and walked inside.

The group stood there in silence then the transporter behind them blared into life and from it appeared Maria and Albel being flanked by two more armed guards, like her the others had been stripped of their weaponry Nel noticed two things first that the black trench coat Albel had adopted as part of his new look and which he wore with his right arm exposed to the air was also gone second his armguard had been confiscated leaving his bare arm exposed and she saw his right hand, which according to people back on Elicoor had been mangled by a dragon when he was 13 but now it was whole as if it had never happened. Albel caught her staring at his hand as he was rudely shoved next to her

"This was the first thing that happened when I joined Maria's organisation…"

"No talking." One of the guards cut him off and slammed the butt of his gun into Albels stomach, which caused him to crouch over gasping for air he then the guard emerged from the room

"Move."

The group was led into the room, inside was a large room walking across a suspended walkway looking through the grilled floor Nel saw what she assumed was almost a thousand people working away at their terminals, walking across the walkway they entered an office at the end.

It wasn't a large room maybe roughly the size of the cockpit of Cliff's ship and standing in front a desk was a welcoming sight to the party

"Blair." Sophia exclaimed

"I was wondering how long it would take you to get here," Blair said a small smile on her face she then looked at the guards "release them and leave us."

Nel and the others where sure the guards weren't too thrilled at having to let their prisoners go after going through the trouble of capturing them but did as they were told they unbound them once they were gone Blaire pressed a button on the desk

"Our guests have arrived sir I'll bring them up now." She then turned round and looked at her friends "If you'll follow me the head honcho is expecting us."

"What, I kinda expecting you'd be in charge of this place now." Cliff said as the group exited the room

"After Luther's death it was expected that I would take over the running of this place," Blaire said as they made their way to the transporter towards the transporter "But when I was offered it I turned it down so they gave it too this other guys instead and to be honest he's doing a better job of running this place then I could of. No I just in charge of the tech division making sure your world runs smoothly."

_'According to her Luther is dead and someone else is in charge now.'_ Nel thought to herself she didn't like the situation but she had to agree that this new guy couldn't be any worse then Luther was. The rest of the trip was conducted in silence soon they were led to a very familiar room the room where Luther had been defeated two years ago standing there to greet them as a tall man, he was ruggedly handsome with forest green hair that fell past his shoulders and sea blue eyes and a fair amount of five o'clock stubble on his face

"Ah Blaire you have brought our guests." He said, "Now don't tell me lets see if I can pass my own pop quiz. The brunette is Sophia Esteed, the blue haired cutie is Maria Traydor, the tall blonde is Cliff Fitter, the blonde chick is Mirage Koas, the little kid is Peppita Rossetti, the red head is Nel Zelpher and the guy with the permanent scowl plastered to his face is Albel Nox right."

"Hey I am not a little kid." Peppita stated and she followed it up by walking up to the man and kicking him in the shin

"Ok I apologize." He said as he rubbed his leg. "Guess I should introduce myself, I am Tiberius I am (sigh) the new creator."

"You don't seem too thrilled by it." Cliff said

"Oh I'm grateful for the job I just hate the title." Tiberius replied.

* * *

A.N. I finally got chapter 8 up,this chapter was actually much longer and was over 4000 words long so I had to cut it in half. So what do you think send me your reviews because I'm a very insecure person who needs your comments so I can go on. Chapter 9 isabout half done and I'll post it as soon as I can, till then peace.


	9. Meeting with God

AN "Blah"- Normal Speech  
_'Blah'_- Thoughts  
Blah>- Comm., ect  
_

* * *

_

_Star Ocean Till the end of time_

Reunion

Chapter 9: Meeting with God  
The rest of the trip was conducted in silence soon they were led to a very familiar room the room where Luther had been defeated two years ago standing there to greet them as a tall man, he was ruggedly handsome with forest green hair that fell past his shoulders and sea blue eyes and a fair amount of five o'clock stubble on his face

"Ah Blaire you have brought our guests." He said, "Now don't tell me lets see if I can pass my own pop quiz. The brunette is Sophia Esteed, the blue haired cutie is Maria Traydor, the tall blonde is Cliff Fitter, the blonde chick is Mirage Koas, the little kid is Peppita Rossetti, the red head is Nel Zelpher and the guy with the permanent scowl plastered to his face is Albel Nox right."

"Hey I am not a little kid." Peppita stated and she followed it up by walking u to the man and kicking him in the shin

"Ok I apologize." He said as he rubbed his leg.

"Guess I should introduce myself, I am Tiberius I am (sigh) the new creator."

"You don't seem too thrilled by it." Cliff said

"Oh I'm grateful for the job I just hate the title." Tiberius replied,

"Where's Fayt?" Nel asked,

"Mr Liengod, he's currently being patched up from his last assignment."

"Assignment?" Sophia said,

"Yes he works for us." Before anyone could say anything Nel rushed forward and grabbed Tiberius by the throat

"I swear if you are holding him against his will I will snap your neck like a twig." Albel and Cliff then wrestled Nel off him

"Cool your jets," Cliff said to her before turning his attention to the man in front of him "Just how long has the kid been working for you."

"That's a very long story and for it to make sense I have to tell you another first and I warn you it quiet a long one so bare with me. Once upon a time sometime before you defeated Luther a grad student came up with quite a brilliant theory, a way to digitise a persons genetic code, of course he tried to get funding for it but was shot down each time because everyone thought the idea was ludicrous."

"Let me guess Luther didn't think so." Cliff said,

"Correct, we don't know much about the work that went on according to what data we've managed to acquire we know two things. First we believe that Luther wanted to use his genetic make up to create the ultimate Executioner, an Executioner specifically designed to kill you. And second was the name of the program, Project: Apocalypse."

"Apocalypse?" Nel asked slightly confused

"Back on Elicoor we knew it by a different name," Albel said from behind her "The Ragnor. The end of everything."

"Yes well, the experiment was largely a failure every one of the test programs died all except one, one survived but it was never finished he died before he could add the last part of the programming into it the part that would allow us to control it, you all saw to that." There was a long pause as the group took this information in

"So what your telling us that in a way Luther is still alive?" Cliff asked,

"Yes." Tiberius replied,

"I'm aware that this is very important but what does this have to do with Fayt?" Nel asked

"I'm coming to that, just bare with me. Anyway it seems before his death Luther was able to upload the Apocalypse program into the Eternal Sphere and because it was created from Luther it has all his drives, ambitions and its seems his insanity. The thing that we've named Apocalypse after the project that created it has found someway of creating others entities from its core program and nothing we do can erase them. We were in pretty deep when Mr Liengod showed up. I'm sure your aware of his impending death we he came to us in some hopes of finding a cure and struck a deal with us, if he destroyed the forces of Apocalypse for us we'd try and find a cure for him. And that's how it started, we supplied him with tools and information, upgraded him and he would solve our bug problem."

"Wait a second, you up graded him" Maria said confused

"Yes," Blaire said

"Thanks to Sophia's power of Alteration you are able to move between the Eternal Sphere and the real world but the fact is you are still programs created by us. We were able to increase his speed, strength, agility we have even increased his bodies natural ability to heal itself. An injury that would have put him out of action for weeks at a time now within a few hours."

"You said that you were looking for a cure for Fayt, have you found one?" Sophia asked daring to hope however the long pause told her the awful truth and tears began rolling down her cheeks

"When he arrived he'd already been to most of the Federations top scientific institutions but they always came back with negative results so just over six months ago he arrived here in hopes we'd have better luck. The damage done is irreversible, we have learned that the rate of consumption seems to be connected to his emotions, the calmer he is the slower the rate the more aggressive he feels the faster the rate. Based on this we've been able to synthesise a serum that at best slows down the rate of consumption." Blair said in an informative tone

"Then why doesn't he just keep using the serum?" Maria asked

"I'm afraid times running out, his body is beginning to reject it and all attempts to create a new serum that will slow the effect have thus far failed. Even after all our best efforts the out come is inevitable, Fayt Leingod is going to die by the very 'gift' his father inscribed into his DNA." Tiberius replied

"If he's been here all this time why didn't you get in contact and tell us?" Maria demanded

"Because he asked us not to, we were respecting his decision believing it would be better if he told you himself." Tiberius said.

There was another long silence finally Sophia couldn't hold it in any more she fell to her knees floods of tears streaming down her face, Blair then knelt down and helped her off the floor

"I'll look after her." She said to Tiberius as she led Sophia to the door.

There was another long silence then to everyone's surprise Albel broke it

"What was that song that he sang before he massacred all toughs worms?" he asked,

"It was the battle song of the Brunnen-G." Tiberius replied

"Brunnen-G?" Mirage asked recalling that Lerajie had mentioned them back on Elicoore.

"The Brunnen-G a race of romantic dreamers and warriors who were wiped out by the Executioners some 500 years ago, however unlike most of the 'bugs' that were erased they as the poet says 'would not go quietly into that long good night'. No they fought it took us almost three weeks to get them all yet somehow even though they'd grown to much they earned our respect, no others except you have resisted us until the bitter end."

A bleeping sound was heard

"Excuse me a second will ya?" Tiberius said as he turned to face a monitor behind him and Linna's face appeared

"Yes?" he asked her

Sir I thought you'd like to know that Mr Leingod has gone AWOL again.> she said Tiberius groaned

"Great. Oh well not to worry its no mystery where he goes he'll be back."

The monitor then went blank Tiberius turned around and found Nel right in front of him which made him jump

"Jesus…don't do that." He gasped

Nel the grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down so the were no eye level with each other

"What's this about Fayt?" she asked in a demanding tone

"Oh he's just gone off again." Tiberius said a cold sweat rolling down his face "He's always doing this no need to panic."

"You let him wonder off on his own. Why didn't anyone try to stop him?" Maria said appalled

"You really going to tell him no?" Tiberius replied.

Nel growled she let go of the man before turning away and headed for the door

"Where you going?" Cliff asked

"To find him." She replied bluntly _'I need answers that only he can give me.'_

Fayt was once again in Gemity his hood pulled over his head staring at the crowds, this is where he came when he wanted to be alone (which was ironic for two reasons

1) he wanted to be alone so he went to a place that was packed with people and

2) because he was alone anyway or so he said.)

He looked at the people walking around here to enjoy themselves and forget whatever hardship they faced in their daily lives before going home to their loved ones

_'Home.'_

As far as Fayt was concerned he had no home and he had no family.

After the war with Luther two years ago he and Sophia went looking for their families Sophia had found her parents were safe and sound but Fayts mother had not been so lucky, she'd been severely injured by the Vendeeni and later died from her injuries. He had no place to return to and no one wait and worry about him but that was the way he wanted it. If he had no home and no one to care about him then no one would miss him, and if nobody missed him when his power eventually killed him no one would care that he was dead.

"Mind if I sit here?"

a voice quickly brought Fayt back to reality and looking up he saw Nel standing over him

"It's a free universe." He replied shrugging his shoulders the red haired maiden sat down, there was along silence between the two of them

"Why do you wear that ridicules hood?" it wasn't the question Nel wanted to ask but she never was one to start a conversation and she figured it was the best way to break the silence

"Do I comment on the way you dress." Fayt replied, "Had Earth survived the only places you'd fit in would be a Science fiction convention."

Nel stared at him confused, mainly because she had no idea what a Science fiction convention was, she then grabbed the hood and pulled in down and got her first really good look at him.

Like his clothes, aura and attitude Fayts face was different somehow more defined, his hair was longer but still as messy and untamed as before, there was also a good deal of stubble on his face but what she was most shocked about was the scar on his left cheek she wondered how she'd missed that.

Fayt turned his head to look at her he was currently wearing dark glasses and didn't resist as Nel removed them and saw an eye patch covering his right eye

"It'll take some time for it to heal properly." He said as he retrieved the glasses from her and returned his attention to the crowds.

The two of them then sat in silence for a while on the surface Nel was calm and content but under it all an inferno of emotion was bubbling away and the question she most wanted an answer to was rising to the surface

"Why did you just disappear Fayt. Why didn't you contact me?"

But instead the second most important question to her list came up instead

"And what would you and the people on that backwater planet been able to do for me? Less then squat." Fayt snapped Nel stared at him and recalled what Tiberius had told her and the others but it still didn't stop from hurting slightly

"I know what you're trying to do, Blair and Tiberius told us what's happening to you and because of it you're trying to push everyone away so they won't care when you die. Know this Fayt no matter how much you threaten us, insult us or assault us Sophia, Cliff, Peppita, Maria, Mirage, myself and even Albel not to mention anyone who knows you will always care about you."

Fayt then got up "Leave me alone."

He then walked off but Nel was quickly on her feet and made her way after him she then grabbed his right shoulder

"What do you want from me?" He asked "And let's not play all this twenty questions crap. What are you really after?"

"Fine, the letter you wrote Sophia. What you said about me what does it mean?" she asked

"Ah the letter, I'd almost forgotten I'd written it. Seems like a lifetime ago." Fayt said more to himself then to her

"What did it mean?" Nel repeated as she grabbed his head and forced him to look at her

"Take it anyway you want." Fayt said as he removed her hands "It doesn't matter anymore, the person who wrote it doesn't exist anymore, far as I'm concerned he died two years ago."

Nel was about to say something when a bleeping was heard and Fayt pulled out his communicator

"What?" he asked

Leingod report back to command centre we have a new mission for you.> A voice on the other end replied

Fayt said nothing as he replaced his communicator and walked off with Nel on his trail

"Fayt what in the name of Apris are you doing, your still not completely recovered from your injuries it would be a really bad idea for you to go anywhere in your current condition."

_'What is she now my mother?'_ "I recall that in the past such a minor detail never stopped you." He said as he stepped through the teleporter that would take them back to the Sphere company.

The two of them arrived and met with Tiberius as well as Cliff and the others being there but Fayt paid them no mind

"What's this new mission?" he asked Tiberius then typed in a few codes on a nearby computers and on a very large screen a picture of planet which appeared similar to the way Earth had looked

"This is Austenia 3, its an U.D.P. around early 19th century. We have received information from one of our agents in the Eternal Sphere that Apocalypse has some interest in this planet though we're not sure what. Your mission is to go there and make sure whatever plans he has fails." Tiberius said he then opened a box on the table he was standing next to and removed a bulky looking gauntlet

"We also have this for you. This gauntlet has a built in commentator and a holo projection unit."

Fayt then pulled the glove onto his right hand as Tiberius removed a small luminous yellow cylinder Fayt then took it from his and pushed it into his left ear

"Fayt, what are you doing?" Sophia shrieked she then made to lung forward and remove the devise when Tiberius put a hand on her shoulder

"No need to worry Ms Esteed. The devise is called a Bable, it's a universal translator which through a complex matrix makes the user fluent in all forms of communication." "Who will you be sending to assist me?" Fayt ask once the Bable was sitting comfortably in his ear "I'm afraid you'll be on your own again." Tiberius replied

"Whatever." Fayt replied,

"Wait," Maria said, "He'll be on his own again?"

"Yes we have a number of agent programs operating in the Eternal Sphere, normally Mr Leingod is accompanied on his missions but lately something has been erasing them." Tiberius said,

"Could Apocalypse be behind this?" Cliff asked

"It's a possibility but at this time we believe it highly unlikely. We no evidence to connect Apocalypse to the eraser of our agents at this time." Tiberius replied

"And you're just going to send him in there all by himself? No way I'm going with him." Nel said

"And me." Cliff said,

"Count me in too." Mirage said,

"Don't forget me." Peppita said excitedly,

"If their all going then I suppose I'll have to come along as well to make sure they don't get killed." Maria said,

"I shall go as well." Sophia said,

"I shall go to make sure no one kills Leingod except me." Albel growled Tiberius let out a small laugh

"I had a feeling that you all might say that." He then reached behind his desk and revealed another metal box, inside were seven more Bables and there was also seven metal bracelets

"These are mobile holoemitters, which means you guys won't have to worry about dressing up and you won't need to worry about how they work, they'll activate as soon as you enter the Eternal Sphere. Unless Mr Leingod here has a problem with you guys tagging along I suggest you head back to Gemity and begin."

Once the man was finished the eight of them headed for the transporters to begin the first part their new adventure.

* * *

AN Well there you go chapter 9 which was orginaly part of chapter 8 but was taking forever to write so I cut it in half into 2 seprate chapters. So what do you think great, good, average or suck ass review and tell me. I know some of it is hardlyoriginaland in places a little far fetched but there you go plus I thought it was a good way to bring Luther back from the dead. Don't expect to see chapter 10 anytime soon, I have a shit load of assingments to do over the Christmas and New Year period for University but will try to upload it as soon as I can. One note are any of you or know anyone who has a good knowlage ofthe world of Jane Austain because next chapter the gang go to a Pride & Prejudice type world and so anyone who has a good knowlage would be useful to have on board. Merry Christmas Peace.


	10. The Mission

AN "Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'_- Thoughts  
_"Blah"_- Memories_

* * *

_

Star Ocean Till the end of time  
Reunion

Chapter 10: The Mission  
When they emerged they found them selves surrounded by rolling countryside.

"So here we are, not much to look at is it." Cliff said plainly

"So now were here what should we do?" Sophia asked

I'm glad you asked you so lucky you got me watching your backs.>

the whole group except Fayt jumped when an unfamiliar voice spoke up but looking around but they saw no one except the other members of the group Albel let out a growl and drew his sword

"Who are you, show yourself." Oh sorry guys didn't mean to scare you and can't do that it's a little out of my power.

My names Tank I'll be your operator and its my job, need anything just give me a call.> he the signed off

Nel looked at Fayt quizzically "operator?"

"Tank is the guy who's assigned to observe the operation and supply me with tools, weapon and such plus make the path run a little smoother get me into building altering guest lists, stuff like that." Fayt said before pressing a button on his gauntlet

suddenly green lines appeared on his body which looked like a grid and end in the gaps pieces of material began to appear until his legs were covered in tight black riding britches, he wore a white shirt with a black jacket thrown over the top along with black riding boots on his feet and a pair of black gloves on his hands

"Are you going to get into your own costumes or are you just going to stand there gawking?" Fayt said before walking off,

Albel let out a grunt before he and Cliff pressing the button on the devises on their wrists and clothes similar to Fayts appeared on their bodies only their jackets was red, the girls then activated their own devises and now each of them was dressed in period costumes

"I hope you have a good explanation why were dressed like characters from a Jane Austin novel." Maria called after Fayt but he ignored her as they set off after him Nel clearly not happy about having to wear a dress.

After walking for two hours in utter silence (Cliff had tried to start a conversation but each attempt died pretty quickly) they then reached a small town

"We shall rest here a while. You go stock up on supplies whilst I gather some information." Fayt said as he made his way forward into the heart of the town

"I don't take orders from lackies, fool." Albel growled whilst Nel let out an annoyed sigh and the two of them set off after him.

The three of them approached an inn called the Red Raven and entered, the inside was fairly large with fifteen tables scattered about with four or five chairs to them which upon sat some somewhat questionable characters with others up at the bar which was located at the far end of the building with a stairwell leading to the floor above where there would no doubt be more table and more lowlifes

"Quite the degenerate little piss hole." Albel said to Fayt who stood next to him on his left whilst stood on Albels right who though she'd rather endure the most painful torture have it known she agreed with Albel but she had to admit he had a point "What are we doing in this godforsaken place?"

"I am here to gather any information that would be useful to me." Fayt said not even looking at his companions "You two unfortunately followed me here like a couple of stray dogs hoping for a few scraps."

Albel seized Fayt by his tunic "You call me a dog you miserable cur." he growled

"Take your hands off me Nox." Fayt replied also letting out a growl

"You will die Leingod and I swear I will be the one to kill you."

"You don't have the balls."

"Enough you two." Nel said as she separated the two though it did hurt slightly when Fayt had compared her to a stray dog

"What kind of information should we be looking for?" she asked the blue haired man

"Anything out of the ordinary, mysterious disappearances, people acting strange, unexplained sightings, anything like that." Fayt said before moving off up the stairs to the second floor Nel then looked at Albel

"What?" he snarled

"Stay out of trouble." she said

"Trouble, moi!" Albel said with a small grin on his face before heading towards the bar Nel shook her head before going after him

_'Someone's got to keep that idiot out of trouble.'_

meanwhile Fayt was upstairs walking amongst the tables keeping his ears open for anything that might be of any use to him when a group of of six men caught his attention three of them rather well dressed whilst the other three we obviously local men one of them was complaining that a seventh man was supposed to have joined them and how they couldn't play without seven people Fayt knew he should move on but something inside him drew him to this particular table

"Typical I knew we should have gone to the Stag, this places bad reputation keeps most away." one of the men said

"Well at least its friendlier here then it is in Waricshire," another said "A lot of strange things going on there people are scared."

this little nugget instantly registered with Fayt and he made his way towards the table

"Gentlemen I see you are short one person may I be permitted to join you." he said sitting down before they could reply the men grumbled but accepted and one of them got out a deck of cards cut and shuffled them before dealing the others five cards each.

Albel and Nel had been at the bar for several hours with out much luck

"This a waste of time." Albel growled again though she wouldn't admit it Nel had to agree

"Lets just grab Fayt and get out of here."

the two of them made their way upstairs they didn't see him at first but then Nel spotted him sitting at a table with six other men he along with three others were holding cards in their hands and appeared to be playing poker.

Fayt looked from his hand to the man who'd had mentioned strange going ons in a place called Waricshire so far he hadn't said anything the other two guys had dropped out leaving him and the guy who he'd found out was called Captain Stokes but that was to be expected as Fayt had been using his new telepathic abilities to influence the men since he sat down also the fact one of the things his mother had done was not only teach him to play cards but more importantly taught him him to cheat, so far Stokes hadn't divulged any information that Fayt could use but one thing Fayt had developed during his time working for Tiberius was a great sense of patience

"So I couldn't help over hearing you mention Waricshire," he said before placing his bet "Funny thing I'm heading there myself."

"If you are my advise friend is to turn back and go home." Stokes replied "Alot of strange things going on there, specially up at Manboura house. Ghostly apparitions, things disappearing no best thing is to stay away. Alright I'll bet fifteen, you in?"

"Course, I'll see your fifteen and raise you twenty five."

"No problem. I call I got Two pairs." he threw down a pair of Queens and a Pair of Kings "Unless you got anything better the pots mine."

he made to scoop up all the gold coins on the table when Fayt threw down his hand of five cards the ten, the Jack, the Queen, the King and the Ace of Spades royal flush. Fayt let out a small chuckle as he scooped the large amount of gold into his money bag and left the table

"Enjoy your evening gentlemen." he then noticed Nel and Albel walking towards him

"What were you doing?" Nel whispered into his ear

"Getting what I needed." he replied and left with the two Elicoorians flowing Albel unreadable whilst Nel looked slightly confused.

Once outside Fayt ducked into an alley and activated the communicator on his gauntlet "Tank I need you to do that thing you do." he hissed

What you need?>

"I need you to find a place called Waricshire and an Manboura house, get me on the guest list."

You mean you and your group.>

"Whatever."

Ok I'll get on it and get back to you. Later dude.>

"Later." Fayt then walked out of the alley where Nel and Albel were waiting for him

"So now what's the next move?" Albel asked

"I am waiting for Tank to get back to me and as far as I'm concerned you can go to Hell." Fayt replied before walking off

"His attitude is really beginning to bug me." Albel growled

"Yeah, he's better at being you then you are." Nel said as she made to follow the blue haired young man

Albel muttered something dark before following her.

Fayt and the others hung around the town for another hour before Tank got back telling them that Waricshire was a small rural community three days north of their present location, the Manboura's were the land owners with a daughter (who was single he added.) they gang managed to persuade (largely by Albel and Fayt) a local merchant who was travelling to the neighbouring community. The journey to the neighbouring community took a day afterwards they had to proceed on foot which took them a day and a half,

by the time Fayt and the others finally caught their first of Manboura house the sun was setting. After another quarter of an hours walk they finally made it to the front doors which hand large brass knockers attached Fayt grabbed hold of one and very loudly banged on the door after a few minutes a middle-aged man answered the door

"Yes, may I help you."

"Yes, my names Fayt Liengod I believe your expecting me." Fayt replied

"I'm sorry sir, we..." the man stopped mid sentence for a few seconds "Forgive me sir, of course your expected." he then fully opened it and stepped aside allowing Fayt and the others to enter.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful, the group were introduced to lord and lady Manboura and their daughter Rossette who spent her time forning over Albel who did his best to ignore her which was taking a great deal of effort on his part, shortly after dinner everyone retired for the evening but several hours later since then Mirage was lying there tossing and turning but no matter how hard she tried couldn't get to sleep, sighing she got out of bed pulled on her shoes and headed out into the corridor.

After a few minutes she reached the drawing room and noticed the French windows were open and looking out on to the balcony she saw Fayt staring up at the moon lit sky and singing the same song he had on Elicoor.

_Vaiyo a-o_

_Vaiyo a-o Home va ya ray_

_Vaiyo a-o rah Jerhume Brunnen-G_

_Vaiyo a-o_

_A home va ya ray_

_Vaiyo a-o rah Jerhume Brunnen-G_

_Vaiyo a-o rah_

_Jerhume Brunnen-G_

He then stopped "You can come out Mirage, I already know your there."

The blond then walked up beside him and leaned against the rail "How did you know?"

"I wouldn't be much of a psychic if I didn't, I can read your mind and right now your wondering what I'm doing out here? Simple, I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"Not sure, I'll know when I see it."

Though she took this information on board Mirage didn't comment on it another long silence passed between before Mirage tried again to have a conversation with him "That song you sung what is it?"

he looked at her for a moment before returning his attention to the nights sky "It is an ancient battle song sung by the Brunnen-G, Tiberius has told you about them right?"

Mirage nodded

"This is the song they always sung before going into battle knowing they had very little chance at winning but knowing they would die well."

"I like to hear you sing. I don't know why but I find it comforting." She said

"Don't get used to it, way things are going I won't be singing for much longer." He replied still looking at the sky

"I don't want you to die Fayt, none of us do."

"Seeing as there's nothing you or anyone else that can prevent it I suggest modifying your want." a small noise caught Fayts attention and he instantly began moving away from the balcony and back in doors Mirage following

"What is it?" she asked

"What I'm looking for." he replied as they made their was through corridors and down a flight of stairs that lead to the servants quarters and the kitchens, the door at the end of the hall closed and Fayt and Mirage headed towards it

"Wait here, I'll go first." Fayt told the blond before entering, inside he found a small flight of stairs that led down to the kitchen upon entering he looked around and immediately found what he was looking for

crouched trembling in a corner was a girl whom could be no older then fifteen with short blond hair and wearing a maids uniform but what was most astounding about her was that her whole body seemed to be made of mist which caused a nearby foot stool to disappear when it passed over it.

"You don't need to fear me, I won't hurt you unless you force me too." Fayt said to her as he approached she made no reply "Your the one causing all the trouble around here." still trembling she looked at him with cerulean blue eyes tears pouring from them

"I sorry...I tried I really did...but I can't control it..." she blurted out "Please don't tell anyone my lord I need this job. My father is dead and I fear that mother will join him soon leaving me to look after my three younger sisters..."

she was cut off when Fayt tried to place one of his fingers against her lips, it didn't find anything solid but it did the trick

"Shh, don't worry you have nothing to fear from me." he then straightened up and took a few steps back then a few seconds later dishes and cutlery pots and pans flew from the shelves and cupboards and swarmed around him

"Your not the only one in this house with special powers."

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AN. Sorry this took so long to upload I'll try and get the next one posted quicker. Well chapter 10 how was it good, average or so bad it sucked Luther's ass review and tell me. Please I'm really insecure and need constant reassuming. Aswell as some other projectsI'm working on a new one shot called _Return to me_featuing everyones favorite red headed warrior plus I also made some changes to _Not so Innocent_ so please check them out. Gotta get back to work, later.


	11. Holocaust

AN  
"Blah"- Normal speech  
_'Blah'_- Thoughts  
_"Blah"_- Memories_

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_

Star Ocean Till the end of time  
Reunion

Chapter 11: Holocaust  
Mirage slowly made her way to the flight of stairs that led to the kitchen upon entering she saw Fayt standing over someone who was crouching in a corner

"You don't need to fear me, I won't hurt you unless you force me too." he was saying "Your the one causing all the trouble around here."

"I'm sorry...I tried I really did...but I can't control it..." came a girls voice "Please don't tell anyone my lord I need this job. My father is dead and I fear that mother will join him soon leaving me to look after my three younger sisters..."

Fayt then leaned over and did something to cut her off "Shh, don't worry you have nothing to fear from me." he then straightened up and took a few steps back then a few seconds later dishes and cutlery pots and pans flew from the shelves and cupboards and swarmed around him "Your not the only one in this house with special powers."

Mirage looked on in wonder, she was aware that Fayt was powerful but didn't think he was this powerful "You can come over Mirage unless you've forgotten our little talk upstairs?" Fayt said as soon as he returned the plates and cutlery to their places.

Mirage blushed slightly with embarrassment as she walked over to Fayt's side and saw a 15 year old girl with short blond hair and blue eyes who's body appeared to be made from a kind of mist

"Who is she?" Mirage asked "What we're looking for." Fayt replied Mirage stared at him a moment before returning her attention back to the girl then some of the mist passed over a knife that was on the floor and vanished before her eyes

"What was that?" "I believe that the mist her body is composed of has some sort of corrosive effect, it disintegrates anything it comes in contact with. Unfortunately it appears she can only manage to stay in a tangible for short periods it seems she doesn't seem to have too much control over it." Fayt replied

Mirage then let out a small yelp and leapt behind Fayt who didn't seem to notice he knelt down again and stretched his hand towards her just stopping short of her face and leaned in closer

"Shh. Its alright," he whispered "let me help." he then closed his eyes and something unexpected happened Mirage wasn't sure but believed she could feel a kind of energy radiating off him whilst the girls body solidified before her eyes, the girl then grabbed hold of the blue haired swordsman and began sobbing into his shoulder "What's your name?" Fayt asked "M...my names Azmaria." she sobbed in reply.

Fayt and Mirage took Azmaria back to her room and whilst Mirage helped her prepare for bed Fayt contacted Tank What's up? "I need you to do a complete search of the sphere, I want to know if any characters are missing particularly ones with special abilities."

"Any particular reason?

"Call it a hunch but I think I know what Apocalypse is after." Ok I'll get on it, I'll tell you if I find anything.

"Right." Signing off he began heading back towards his room _'A hunch. I'm turning into Cliff, that can't be good.'_ he thought to himself a small smile spreading across his lips.

The next morning after breakfast the gang gathered together in the library to discuss a plan of action "So that's the situation." Mirage said to the others once she'd explained everything to them

"So let me get this straight," Maria said "There's a girl in this house who's body is made of some kind of mist that disintegrates anything it touches. And you believe that Apocalypse is going to be coming after her."

"That's about the size of it yes." Mirage replied "Fayt thinks it has something she can do at will but it clear she has little to no control over it."

Albel who was by the window that looked out onto the grounds let out a cruel chuckle "So the two of you had a midnight rendezvous eh. Are you two up to anything your not telling us?" he said in a cruel tone if there was one thing Albel enjoyed more the humiliating people it was watching them squirm

"What. N...no." Mirage protested meanwhile if anyone had bothered to notice they would have seen Cliff staring daggers at Fayt who was seated at a desk his feet resting upon it reading a book clearly not listening to the conversation nor did they notice the dark look Nel was giving Mirage

"So what do we do now?" Sophia asked "We keep an eye on her and protect her," everyone got a small shock when Fayt who hadn't said anything the entire time "If Apocalypse wants her then we'll make him regret it."

"Sounds like a plan I guess." Maria said not particularly comfortable with the idea of going up against an enemy that almost overwhelmed them last time but it was clear that none of the others had any better ideas and this time they knew what they were up against so theoretically they would be better prepared.

For the next few days the gang never let Azmaria out their sight Fayt sticking closest to her not just her protection but also he was the one who was keeping her powers in check, however a week into their arrival the group were informed that in a few days the Manbouras would be hosting a garden party where many of the counties important people, though agreeing that they it would make keeping watch over Azmaria easier they also had to take into account that if Apocalypse's forces showed up they may not be able to defend so many people and keep Azmaria safe at the same time, on the other hand according to Albel with so many people at the event Nel might actually be able to get a date for a change to which Nel replied by punching him in the face.

The party had been going on for nearly hours now and Fayt could tell it would not last much longer as quite a few of the more important guest had left some time ago, he made his way towards one of the many refreshment tents that had been erected inside he found Azmaria sorting out the left over food she then looked over her shoulder and saw him

"Oh master Leingod."

"I told you before you can drop the master part, I don't have any noble blood in my veins." _'Technically speaking in this world I don't even have blood in my veins.'_ he replied as he walked over to her and picked up a tray of half eaten food

"You shouldn't be doing that that is my task sir." Azmaria said trying to take the tray away but Fayt grabbed one of her hands

"Don't worry I want to help you, and drop the sir." he said a small blush coloured Azmaria's cheeks before picking up another tray and the two of them set off back towards the kitchens unaware that the two of them where being observed.

The two of them reached the kitchens Fayt listened to the story Azmaria was telling him when she finished for the first in a long time he let out a laugh, not a forced or sarcastic laugh but a true one, still chuckling as well as having a smile plastered to his face he looked over at his companion who seemed to be blushing which caused him to stop

"Is something wrong?" "N...no, it's just...its nothing." she replied as she placed the tray down on one of the tables "Please tell me." Fayt said in a soft tone setting his own tray down then placing a hand on her shoulder

"It's just...your smile is very comforting." she said her face becoming even redder "You should smile more." "Haven't really had any reason too." he replied turning away from her "Nor will I have any reason too in the near future." she stared at his back she wasn't sure how but somehow she knew he was hiding something from her

"Azmaria, there's something I need to tell you." Fayt said still not facing her "There's a reason I came here and it's to do with you." "Me?" she replied surprise colouring her voice

"I..." he began but was cut off when an explosion from outside caught their attention and standing in the doorway was a strange looking creature dressed in amour carrying a large scythe and began advancing towards the pair Azmaria let out a scream whilst Fayt stared at the creature his face twisted into a scowl.

With a cry the creature lunged at them Fayt grabbed the blonde and side stepped out of the way as the blade cleaved the air embedding the weapon into the stone floor. The creature let out a deep throaty cry as it tried to remove its weapon from the ground however it wasn't quick enough Fayt had deactivated his holoemiter and his officers uniform vanished revealing his black and silver armour plus all his equipment, he then drew his sword and charged and used his sword to cut the creature in two. Looking over his shoulder he saw Azmaria staring at him her eyes wide in shock and fear

"Wh...What is that thing? What are you?" Fayt shook his head then turned his focus back at the bleeding creature on the ground

"It's called a Legion. It's a foot soldier, a grunt. It may look formidable but their pretty easily dispatched but unfortunately their like cockroaches, where there's one there are always more."

"And...what are you?" she asked

"Once upon a time I considered my self human but now...I don't know...not anymore." the two of them fell into what felt like an eternal silence till Fayt his focus back on the short haired blond and extended his hand to her

"Come on we'd better go." the girl stared at his hand for a few seconds before taking hold of it and led her out the kitchen door however the sight that greeted them wasn't very promising as the found themselves surrounded by more Legion

"Shit." Fayt cursed through his gritted teeth as he took up his fighting stance making sure Azmaria was safely behind him before uttering an incantation under his breath and the runealogical symbol for fire appeared on his palm "Wait." the sound of the young woman's voice caused him to stop chanting and the symbol disappeared

"These things are after me, aren't they." not taking his eyes off the enemy Fayt gave her a simple nod then to his surprise Azmaria then walked out in front of him

"What are you doing, it's too dangerous." he said as he made to grab her but stopped short when her body began changing into mist "These things are after me, I should be the one to deal with them." Azmaria stated calmly "But you can't, you don't know how your power works." Fayt yelled

"Please let me do this. I may not know how but seeing you risk your life for me has given me courage, courage not to be afraid and use my power to help you." Azmaria then held her hand out in front of her and a stream of the mist rushed out consuming the Legion instantly before holding out her other hand and doing the same to another group of Legion.

Fayt couldn't help but be impressed at the level of control over her power that Azmaria had developed in such a short space of time but he shook it off he couldn't afford to become distracted he had a job to do, drawing his sword he charged into battle cutting down Legion after Legion however as soon as he cut one down two more seemed to take its place _'I don't have time for this._'

He then grabbed Azmaria's shoulder "Quick get behind me, cover your eyes and whatever you do don't move."

Azmaria was about to question him when a white aura began appeared around his body that grew and a large symbol appeared on the ground, a wall of pure white energy then rushed forward consuming all the Legion in it wake.

When the young maid opened her eyes and saw that not only where all the creatures gone but also all the grass and vegetation in a 10 meter radius and white feathers floated around her as if from the heavens she then stared at Fayt who had suddenly make begun making strange choking noises

"Stay where you are don't come near me." Fayt ordered as he reached into the leather pouch on his belt and pulled out the injection gun, a vial of serum already inserted into it and injecting the liquid into his neck, once the last drop had passed into his neck Fayt collapsed onto his knees supporting himself with his hands breathing heavily and making grunting sounds forcing himself to stay conscious

"What...are you?" Azmaria asked

"Someone with great destructive power and not much time left." he replied

"Are you alright?"

"No, the serum temporary weakens me for several minutes and usually knocks me out for several hours but I can't give into it this time, I can't I have to keep going I have a job to do."

It was then an explosion followed by screams were heard, forcing himself to his feet using his sword as a support Fayt saw more Legion down below attacking the remains of the garden party but then something happened, two swirling masses of dark gas appeared next the burning remains of one of the tents and from them two figures emerged.

One was a strange looking creature as if someone had created a hybrid of a man and a hyena like creature, grey fur with black dots covered its body wearing leather pants that where ripped in places and a dark green shirt the sleeves torn off and on his bare feet and hands where talon like nails. It's companion however was very different, encased entirely in an armour suit with a large plasma cannon for a left arm, however a semicircular built into the top of the suit revealed there a skeletal like creature inside with multicoloured gasses swirling around in side.

Fayt growled and turned to Azmaria "Its getting too dangerous, we need to find some place for you to hide." she was about to argue but the look in his eye stopped her "Follow me." She then led him back into the kitchen to the fire place on the back wall, she reached inside the hearth and the back slide away revealing a hidden staircase

"Long a go during the Great Rebellion Manboura House was home was a garrison for soldiers and Lord Manboura was one of the kings most decorated Captains, however what they didn't know was Lord Manboura was secretly working with the rebels to overthrow the king. The tunnels under the house where used to hide weapons and supplies and a place to hide injured rebels and escaped prisoners." she then turned to him

"You must trust me," he said placing his hand under her chin "the two who have just shown up are very powerful and very deadly and my companions won't be able to handle them on their own." she then placed her hand on top of his "I won't let them take you, I swear." he then turned away and headed back out the kitchen door whilst Azmaria watched until he was out of sight and headed into the darkened tunnel the door closing behind her.

The day had been quite with nothing really out of the ordinary a few minor scuffles between one or two guests who had hit the readily available supply of wine one too many times.

Nel was seated at the refreshments tent drinking a cup of tea _'Clair.'_ she missed her, she had been her best friend since either of them could remember and she also missed Tynave and Farleen and Queen Romeria and too an extent Adray (sure she respected him but she also liked to hear herself think as well).

Whilst she was thinking Maria sat down across from her "Penny for them?" "Huh?" Nel looked up from her cup snapping out of her reprieve

"A penny for your thoughts, Its an old saying from Earth." the blue haired girl stated as she poured a cup for herself

"Oh it's nothing I was just thinking about things, its silly really." Nel replied Maria smiles at her

"Y'know in all my years as leader of Quark I've developed a pretty good sixth sense when someone's bullshitting me."

a small smile graced the crimson haired warriors lips "Is it that obvious."

"You're not that good of a liar." Maria replied before sipping her tea "I was just thinking about home,"

Nel told her after a long silence had developed between them "Wondering what ever ones up to." "I'm sure their missing you too." Maria said and took a sip Nel smiled and took a sip from her own cup.

The two had just finished their beverages and walking away from the tent when suddenly it exploded throwing the two women five feet and slamming into the ground the air around them shattering like glass and the same creatures that had appeared on Elicoore surrounded them

"Shit, Fayt was right they've come for Azmaria." Nel muttered as the two warrior women got to their feet, fortunately for them the majority of the guest had already left and any who remained had already run for cover meaning it was safe for all of them to deactivate their holoemitters drew their weapons and charged into engage the monstrosities.

As before fighting these things was tough no matter how many they cut down more just seemed to take there place but this didn't discourage them as they weren't prepared to give up, then for some reason their opponents seemed to back away but before anyone comment on this two swirling masses of dark gas appeared in front of the burning remains of the refreshments tent and from them two figures emerged.

One was a strange looking creature as if someone had created a hybrid of a man and a hyena like creature, grey fur with black dots covered its body wearing leather pants that where ripped in places and a dark green shirt the sleeves torn off and on his bare feet and hands where talon like nails.

It's companion however was very different, encased entirely in an armour suit with a large plasma cannon for a left arm, however a semicircular built into the top of the suit revealed there a skeletal like creature inside with multicoloured gasses swirling around in side.

"Hey Maria you think you, Sophia and the kid keep the rest of these things off our backs?" Cliff asked then Peppita kicked him in the shin "Ow." "Yes I think so." Maria replied "Then whilst you do that Mirage I want you Nel and Albel to take care of that walking junk heap. As for me dog boy's mine." Cliff stared at the thing and assumed his pose

"Hey dog boy, I don't know about here but where I come we got leash laws mutt." the creature seemed to posses some degree of understanding because it began growling at Cliffs comments

"Come on bring it Fido." the furred creature snarled and rushed towards Cliff and pounced on him and the two of them rolled about on the ground in a flurry of teeth, claws and fists.

Mirage was about to back up Cliff when Albel grabbed her arm "Albel let go," she demanded "Cliff might act all tough but he might need some help with this one."

"Cliff is a moron," Albel growled "But this time he must have some slight idea of what he's doing, I might not like the guy but he gave us an order and we are going to carry it out." the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds before Mirage lowered he gaze

"Right." Albel stared at her a few moments more then turned gaze at the others "You already know what to do?" Maria Sophia and Peppita nodded

"Leave these things to us." Sophia replied offering the swordsman a small smile "Alright lets reduce that walking heap to scrap metal." Albel then smirked and turned to look at Nel "I'll try and leave something for you Zelpher."

Nel glared at his back before she hurried after him and Mirage.

Fayt charged towards the battlefield, using the serum had left him weakened but it still didn't stop him from cutting down all the Legion that got in his way, looking ahead he saw Maria Sophita and Peppita where taking on the Legion whilst Cliff tangled with Jackal-Head and Mirage Nel and Albel were engaging Holocaust.

Having faced these two before he knew when it came to raw power Holocaust was the more dangerous of the two but Jackal-Head, who might not be the sharpest tool in the box but when it came to raw strength and ferocity he was no push over.

Nel and her two companions where engaged with one of the most powerful enemies they had ever faced as their attacks did little then scratch its armour

_'This is impossible,'_ the red head growled _'How are we supposed to beat this thing if he can't get through its armour.'_ _'You don't.'_ a voice echoed inside her head _'Not like that anyway.'_

Suddenly she felt something move past her then a flash of white light which was followed by a cry from the monstrosity in front of them an almost transparent orb appeared around the monster with an X shaped cut on it which grew larger causing it to disintegrate

"Your shield is gone Holocaust, lets see how long you last with out it." standing before the beast was Fayt sword drawn and eyes wild

"You'll pay for that." Holocaust roared as the large cannon fired a beam of energy which Fayt dodged out of the way of Albel Nel's and Mirage heading over too him

"Ok Liengod spill," Albel growled "What the hell is that thing." "That thing is Holocaust the over there is Jackal-Head, more of Apocalypses minions." Fayt replied "Listen up you pathetic insects I don't have time to play infantile games with you." Holocaust growled "Hand over the whelp and I'll make your demise quick and painless as possible." "I have a better idea," Fayt snapped in response "Azmaria stays with us and you and your furry companion can go to hell."

The quartet then charged at the monster Fayt and Albel's sword and Nel's daggers sliced and hacked at Holocaust's armour whilst Mirage delivered powerful blows whilst also doing their best to dodge the plasma blasts from its arm mounted cannon "Pathetic worms." it cried as it let loose another blast which the trio dodged with ease, Albel activated the claws on his arm guard and leapt forward taking a swipe at the clear dome that covered the creatures head and although it didn't do any major damage it was able to make a small crack which slowly began to release the gasses that were keeping him alive

"That's for using my line maggot." Albel said a sinister smirk spread across his lips Holocaust let out a roar and charged his cannon up with enough energy to take Albel's head off Nel leapt forward and unleashed a vicious kick which made the crack larger and more gas began seeping out which Mirage doubled up with a vicious blow to the chest that sent him crashing to the ground

"Now tell us why your want Azmaria, tell me why are you here?" Nel demanded Holocaust let out a small chuckle "To gather the Horsemen of course." "The Horsemen?" Nel said confused "Yes, the avatars of the four plagues that have existed since before the beginning of time War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. Apocalypses most powerful soldiers the ones who will pave the way for the End of Day's."

"It will never happen." Fayt spat "I swear on what life I have left I will hunt down and kill these Horsemen and destroy Apocalypse." "I wouldn't make promises you can't keep foolish child," Holocaust snarled "You wouldn't live long enough to face the Horsemen because I will annihilate you here and now." he unleashed another cannon blast which Fayt dodged.

The fight continued it was clear to Fayt that no matter how powerful or skilled he and his companions were this was a battle they couldn't win glancing slightly over his shoulder he could see Jackal-Head was starting to gain the upper paw against Cliff who's clothes were almost completely ripped to shreds and flesh bore long serious looking cuts, meanwhile Sophia, Maria and Peppita were holding their own against the legion, barley. He looked back at Nel, Mirage and Albel who were giving it their all to defeat the monstrosity before them, but it wasn't enough they weren't ready to face the likes of Jackal-Head and Holocaust.

No, there was only one way to end this and he didn't like it one bit but it was clear there was no other way if he was going to save his former friends and the entire population of this planet.

Whilst the others where busy with Jackal-Head and Holocaust he made a swift retreat and headed where he had instructed Azmaria to hide, running up towards the the house and into the kitchens, once inside he ran to the fire place and pulled the hidden leaver revealing the secret door that led to the tunnels under the house the door closing behind him leaving him in total darkness but this didn't deter him and reaching out with his mind he found she wasn't to far away from him and running his hand along the wall he hurried along the corridors coming across a small speck of light and kept going till the whole room was eliminated and the short haired blonde stood before him

"Master Fayt..." she began but stopped when she saw the look on his face and the way he was holding his sword

"Its not going well, is it?" he didn't reply the look on his face told her all she needed to know she then began advancing towards him "If I was by myself I could use my powers freely and Jackal-Head and Holocaust wouldn't be a problem, but the others aren't ready to face their kind of power."

He felt her placing her hands on his shoulders "I understand." she whispered before she pressed her lips against his before opening her mouth and her tongue danced with his. For a moment the two of them lost themselves in the warmth of the other "Thank you for our time." Azmaria whispered once the two of them separated

"Goodbye." he replied, he never took his eyes off her even when he saw her eyes widen and felt something warm oozing onto his hand nor when she fell forward into his chest.

Removing his sword from her chest he then gently he set her down on the ground and stood there and watched as slowly her life slipped away.

Nel was gasping for breath she had just dodged another of Holocaust's assaults, just. She knew she couldn't keep this up much longer and from the state the others where in they couldn't either.

Looking up she saw Holocaust standing over her pointing his cannon at her "Die." he stated as his cannon began glowing with energy preparing to end her life

"STOP." a voice cried out turning to look Nel, Albel and the rest of the group saw Fayt standing there the lifeless body of Azmaria in his arms "You want her here she is." he then dropped her on the ground. Holocaust stared at him

"You little upstart because of you we have failed to capture the girl. So I'll just have to kill you instead." Holocaust roared and levelled his cannon at Fayt however before the monster could fire a flash of light appeared behind Holocaust and from it emerged a familiar figure who wore a figure long leather coat and what looked like a gasmask covering his face

"Lerajie." Fayt snarled drawing sword which was dripping with blood which told his companions the whole terrible story.

"Enough," the masked man yelled "Holocaust Jackal-Head this mission is over we're leaving." he then glared at Fayt "Don't think for a moment this makes any difference Leingod, you have only postponed the inevitable. Our master and creator Lord Apocalypse will rise and with his horsemen at his side the galaxy will tremble in his iron fist."

And with his final words Lerajie Jackal-Head Holocaust and the remaining Legion disappeared leaving Nel staring at Fayt as the blood of a young woman ran down the blade of his sword and dripped onto his hand.

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AN Finally I finished this chapter, I have no other excuse then being a lazy bastard however I've already made a good start on chapter 12. For all of you who liked my one shot _Not so Innocent_ I have news, I want to expand upon it but whether it'll be in the form of another chapter or another one shot I dunno plus if anyone what's to contribute some ideas it would be appreciated as I'm a little low on ideas. Only 10 more days till FFXII, possible the last great game before PS3 comes out in April, is released in this country. Happy Valentines Day y'a'll. 


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